 |
 |
 |
|
Overwhelming majority want an end to the censorship of arguments and evidence against evolution |
One of the folders the documents are stored in |
Catalog of the contents of each of the 9 boxes as of 9/18/2002) |
We received the following e-mail from the Ohio
Department of Education (ODOE) in response to our inquiry as to how many people had
contacted them with comments about the science standards. As of the end of August, 2002, they
have received 17,347 phone calls, letters and/or e-mails about
them. Two
sets of the analysis of these results exist. One is accurate, one is skewed.
Depending upon which one you believe, either 74% or
96% want an end to the censorship of scientific evidence against
evolution in Ohio's schools. Either way, it's overwhelmingly in favor of
ending the censorship. So far, the ODOE has not released either set of results
to the public on their web site or to the media as far as we can tell.
We consider these results to be inaccurate as far as
the category of "Evolution only taught" is concerned. Dr.
Robert Lattimer, a member of the Science
Writing Team wrote this
letter explaining
why that particular count should not be trusted for the June, 2002 total.
The same concerns still apply with the August count.
| Evolution only (continue the censorship) |
Allow opposing scientific arguments to evolution | |
| Skewed results | 26% | 74% |
| Accurate results | 4% | 96% |
From "Lehman, Shelly"
Subject science data
Date Wed, 4 Sep 2002
Gary,
Thank you for your call. Please find below the information you requested. Please note that these numbers are tentative and are subject to change as they continue to be analyzed within our Office.
This information reflects what the Ohio Department of Education has received regarding comments on the new science academic content standards through August 2002.
Currently, there are a total of 17,347 comments on the science standards of which:
316 responses state that they either do no want evolution taught at all or want ID or creationism only taught;
12,373 responses indicate they would like both ID and evolution taught;
Editor's note: We sent a follow-up e-mail asking if the results from this pro-Intelligent Design web site were included in the above count: http://www.intelligentdesignnetwork.org/OhioPoll.htm. We'll let you know when we find out.
4,446 responses
want Evolution only taught (note this
includes most of the electronic petitions)
Editor's note: In a subsequent e-mail
Shelly sent, she indicated that the source of these "electronic
petitions" was the web site petitiononline.com. However, they appear to
have actually originated from the pro-evolution, pro-censorship web site
www.ohioscience.org. Their web site automatically redirects to the
petitiononline.com web site. According to the petitiononline.com web site, 3,773 petitions were signed on
that site as of 9/5/2002. However, according to Shelly's subsequent
e-mail, there were 3,742 as of August 31, 2002. If these 3,742 are not considered,
only 704 people were in favor of "evolution as fact" in the science
standards. The main problem with including these 3,742 is that they're based on
a gross distortion of the facts. Their petition says in part, "The Ohio board of education is considering inserting "Intelligent Design"
creationism...". The idea that we are trying to get
"creationism" into the science standards is patently false. For the truth about this, see Point #1 on
our Discerning Media Bias and Errors link. There are also other
problems with allowing these 3,742 into this total.
212 are "other" (miscellaneous comments such as "you are doing a good job")
Editor's note: We excluded this group from our analysis.
Thank you,
Shelly Lehman
Public Information Officer
Office of Curriculum and Instruction
Ohio Department of Education
614-387-0936 (direct)
614-995-5568 (fax)