Georgia Citizens for Integrity in Science Education

Marietta Daily Journal Editorial, December 21, 2006

http://www.mdjonline.com/94/10241495.txt

The Cobb school board finally admitted the obvious on Tuesday: that its “evolution sticker” case had devolved into a waste of time, tax dollars and educators’ attention. As a result, it took the long-overdue step of pulling the plug on its federal court appeal of a lower-court ruling that said the evolution disclaimer stickers the board had ordered placed in all high school science textbooks were unconstitutional.

The board agreed on Tuesday to settle the suit brought against it by east Cobb parent Jeffrey Selman and several others. The agreement specifies the board will not use such disclaimers in the future and commits the board to pay around $166,000 in attorney fees for the plaintiffs. The board also wracked up $109,000 in payments to its own attorney during the case, although that attorney firm, Brock Clay of Marietta, had agreed to represent the board gratis during the appeals phase. Just think how many teachers could have been hired with that $275,000 or so the board wasted on something that never should have been an issue in the first place.

The board put the stickers in the textbooks in 2002. The stickers described evolution as “theory, not a fact,” and said students should consider the subject with an open mind. In turn, that prompted Selman and four parents represented by the American Civil Liberties Union to file suit contending that the stickers violated the concept of church/state separation.

U.S. District Court Judge Clarence Cooper agreed they were unconstitutional, ruling in January 2005 that the stickers represented an attempt by the board to advance religion in the classroom. So the board spent about $14,000 having them removed from the books.

But the board was not content to let that be the final word on the matter, and voted in January 2005 to take the case to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. But in May of this year that court sent the case back to Cooper, citing a number of factual problems in his ruling and leaving it to him to determine whether to hold a new trial.

At that point, with the legal costs rising and no end in sight to the litigation - and with three new members taking office as of next month - the board began talking seriously about settling.

“The board maintains that the stickers were constitutional, but, at the same time, the board clearly sees the need to put this divisive issue behind us,” said board Chairwoman Dr. Teresa Plenge.

Indeed, the sticker issue wound up being a huge distraction for the board and top administrators. Among other things, while the board was making a top priority of dissing Darwin, it let the system drop onto the dreaded “Needs Improvement List” under No Child Left Behind. Whatever time and money it would have been spent from here forward pursuing the appeal and preparing for a new trial could no doubt be better spent trying to get the Cobb system back on track.

Hopefully from here forward, the school board will focus on what is supposed to be its main priority - increasing student achievement - instead of wasting its time and the public’s money on more such matters.