I didn't post anything yesterday about "Evolution Takes a Back Seat in U.S. Classes," from the science section of The New York Times, but please read it and get angry:

In districts around the country, even when evolution is in the curriculum it may not be in the classroom, according to researchers who follow the issue.

Teaching guides and textbooks may meet the approval of biologists, but superintendents or principals discourage teachers from discussing it. Or teachers themselves avoid the topic, fearing protests from fundamentalists in their communities....

So, David Brooks, is this is the kind of rejection of blue-state values you admire? And Newt Gingrich, you've always been a science-oriented guy -- if, as seems to be the case, you're running for president in '08, are you in favor of truthful science, even when it conflicts with some people's ideas about God?

The Times article says this flat out:

There is no credible scientific challenge to the idea that all living things evolved from common ancestors, that evolution on earth has been going on for billions of years and that evolution can be and has been tested and confirmed by the methods of science.

Thank you.

So what can be done about this? The article notes that

Advocates for the teaching of evolution provide teachers or school officials who are challenged on it with information to help them make the case that evolution is completely accepted as a bedrock idea of science. Organizations like the science teachers' association, the National Academy of Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science provide position papers and other information on the subject.

As I said a couple of weeks ago, where's the material aimed at the broader public? Is anyone working on anything that will reach out directly to ordinary Americans and make the pro-evolution case?