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From: kew@bigburd.UUCP (Karen Wieckert)
Newsgroups: net.politics,net.religion
Subject: Re:  Evolution banned in the US Schools.
Message-ID: <2048@bigburd.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 28-Aug-85 09:26:14 EDT
Article-I.D.: bigburd.2048
Posted: Wed Aug 28 09:26:14 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 31-Aug-85 06:44:16 EDT
References: <4141@alice.UUCP>
Reply-To: kew@bigburd.UUCP (Karen Wieckert)
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Xref: watmath net.politics:10739 net.religion:7506

In article <4141@alice.UUCP> jj@alice.UUCP writes:

>... do not even seem to care that evolution,
>physics, sexual equality, racial equality, the scientific
>method, geology, geography, and other such "secular
>humanism studies" have been banned in high-schools that
>receive federal funding.
>
>Of course, that's not strictly true, since the statute
>only bars "secular humanism", which is ill-defined and
>probably meaningless. None-the-less,
>that's what "fundamental Christians" and other nasty beasties
>are using the statute for.  Given that the person who
>WROTE the statute (Orin Hatch, R-Utah) is a person with strong 
>and very regressive religious beliefs, I cannot believe that the 
>use of the statute for religious harrassment is co-incidence.
>

My suggestion is for someone to get the exact wording of the legislation,
which I believe is on the D of Educ. authorization.  I was in Washington in
1984, and the bit about secular humanism was added by Orrin Hatch to
the D of Educ.'s 1985 authorization, but was not applicable to all schools.  
In that authorization, which I know passed the Senate but don't know what
happened in conference, federal funding was being used to set up magnate
schools or some such thing.  These would be regional "super" schools where
bright kids would be educated on math, science, literature, etc. making them
better engineers, scientist, leaders of the future.  This was being pushed
because of data on the number of these types being educated in USSR, Japan, 
China, etc.  

Anyway, Hatch added this stuff about no money going to secular humanism type
courses in these magnate schools.  Hatch may have gotten away with more in
the 1986 authorization and extended it to all schools with federal funds, 
almost all schools now both public and private.  I wouldn't be suprised.  But
before you go bananas over the loss of evolutionary biology, etc, take a 
look at the legislation.

Write to your Congressman requesting the Do educ.'s 1985 authorization and
budget, and the 1986 draft legislation for the authorization and budget.  I 
doubt that it has been passed into law yet.  For 1986, you should request
both the House and Senate versions.  (I would do this myself, but I am leaving
the net for at least three weeks and possibly permanently.  Moving to another
network...)

ka:ren