KS BOE Creationist to head national school board organization

If the name "Willard" sends a chill up your spine, from the old rat horror movie, you may gasp involuntarily when you hear the name again. And with good cause.

Kenneth R. Willard, a creationist insurance agent from Hutchinson, Kansas, will, in all probability, become President of the Board of the NASBE, the National Association of State Boards of Education.

Willard is one of the six creationist State Board of Education members who voted to accept the state's public school science standards produced by an ID/Young-Earth Creationist minority on the science standards writing committee. In 2006, the voters gave the Board majority to moderates, who quickly deep-sixed the embarrassing ID "substandards" and adopted the standards submitted by the writing committee majority. We'll see whether the 2008 Board of Education elections will put creationists back in the saddle again, or if the voters' sanity will prevail. We've been through the mill nearly every two years since 1999. And Kansas K-12 public education has been the butt of far too many late-night talk show jokes and editorial cartoons.

Anyhow, speaking of jokes, how does it happen that Willard, a guy who doesn't know his arse from Darwin's elbow, could become President of a national organization like NASBE? Here's how: by dumb luck. He found himself the only candidate after the former President, in a surprise move, decided to step down rather than run for his seat on the NASBE Board again. By the time the Pres stepped down, the deadline for nominations had passed, and the NASBE's bylaws don't provide for write-in votes. So there you have it.

Looking for the pony in the poo pile, at least when Willard is elected to the NASBE Board, he may have less time to booger up the Kansas Board of Education's agenda. But I wonder what damage he could do at NASBE? Oy.

See the full NY Times story here.