State BOE confronts critics at meeting

Gov. Taft's office has received angry letters.
COLUMBUS (AP) -- State Board of Education members lashed back at audience members who criticized the state's lesson plan for questioning evolution, reading a personal e-mail from one speaker and reading newspapers as another person spoke, a newspaper reported Friday.
The confrontations during the public comment section of last week's meeting happened after journalists left, said The Columbus Dispatch, which obtained a tape of the meeting.
Gov. Bob Taft's office has received some angry letters, and Taft spokesman Mark Rickel said the governor expects board members to act professionally toward one another and the public. Some board members are appointed by the governor, but the harshest comments came from elected members.
The board by a 9-8 vote on Jan. 10 rejected an attempt to reopen debate on whether the state's lesson plan for science include inaccuracies about evolution and promotes "intelligent design," the idea that life is too complex to have evolved. Member Martha Wise had sought to remove the evolution lesson plan because of a federal court ruling in Pennsylvania rejecting intelligent design as an unscientific form of creationism.
Ohio State University graduate student Keith Morris said the plan was full of lies pointed out by "many honest board members."
Board member Michael Cochran, a pastor from Blacklick, shot back with high ratings of the board from an education think tank and magazine.
"So half the board is dishonest? How do you square your comments with the ratings from (Thomas B.) Fordham Foundation and Education Weekly which gave us an A- and a B?" Cochran said. "How do you analyze that? They are probably dishonest, aren't they?"