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Hold the Evolution VIRTUAL ACADEMY MAKES SCIENCE OPTIONAL

by Forrest Wilder

Lisa Crabtree—a Dallas mother of 10, with
number 11 on the way—won’t send her kids to
public school, in part because she can’t
stomach the thought of their learning about
evolution. Home schooling her brood, however,
has become increasingly expensive and complex.
So this year, Crabtree enrolled her school-age
children in the Texas Virtual Academy at
Southwest, an online charter school funded by
taxpayers. The school provides Crabtree and
other parents with a free computer, an out-of-
the-box curriculum, online support and—best of
all—the option of skipping lessons on
evolution.

“Since I am a committed Christian, I do not
believe in evolution and really don’t want my
children taught this false doctrine,” Crabtree
wrote in an e-mail to the Observer. “If my kids
were in a regular brick-and-mortar public
school system, they would be getting a full
dose of evolution, with no one there to tell
them that what they are hearing is a lie from
hell.”

The virtual academy seems to have attracted
other families eager to dodge Darwin. Of the
six academy parents the Observer could reach,
three said they either skipped the lessons on
evolution or presented them to their children
as falsehoods.

Staci Salazar described her family as
“evangelical Christian.” She wrote: “[W]e are
comfortable with them learning about what the
other theories are simply because they have
been rooted in the truth and knowledge will
become their weapon in defense of creation.”

Dan Quinn, spokesman for the liberal watchdog
Texas Freedom Network, said the group takes the
position that parents have the right to teach
their children anything they please. But he’s
troubled by the role of K12 Inc., a publicly
held, homeschooling business cofounded by Bill
Bennett, the conservative former education
secretary, that sells curricula to virtual
schools, including the Texas Virtual Academy.
Though the state of Texas requires that each
student “knows the theory of biological
evolution,” K12 makes plain on its Web site
that it considers the theory optional.

“K12 sells its curriculum to a taxpayer-funded
public school and then tells users to just
ignore parts of the curriculum they don’t like
or agree with,” Quinn said. “So the company
promotes educational malpractice for profit,
and taxpayers pay for it.”

The Texas Education Agency seems unconcerned.
In August, Commissioner Robert Scott elected to
double the virtual school’s enrollment from 750
to 1,500 students, despite objections from
dozens of school districts concerned that
defections would hurt their finances.

TEA spokeswoman Debbie Graves Ratcliffe said
the virtual academy is no different from any
other public school in that parents may shield
their children from objectionable material.
They should do so, however, with the
understanding that they could be tested on the
material later, she added.



— Forrest Wilder
Texas Observer
2008-10-31
http://www.texasobserver.org

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