A roundup of recent Indiana newspaper editorials

Creationism is bad science

Northeast Indiana lawmakers experiment with bad science, misguided theology and a violation of constitutional principles in their push for creationism in the classroom.

Senate Bill 89, authored by Sen. Dennis Kruse, R-Auburn, and co-sponsored by Sen. Jim Banks, R-Columbia City, and Sen. Travis Holdman, R-Markle, was approved by the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday. It would allow school districts to "require the teaching of various theories concerning the origin of life, including creation science" - a requirement that inevitably would be adopted by some and certainly would draw legal challenge. It's a legal challenge the state can't win and shouldn't tempt for many more reasons than the cost.

It's scientifically unsound. Indiana's current science standards require students to know that Charles Darwin's book, "On the Origin of Species," is supported by "a massive array of biological and fossil evidence." For a theory to be considered scientific, it must be verifiable. Evolution makes clear predictions that are borne out by data in geology, anatomy, genetics, molecular biology, physiology and more. Creationism ignores the same scientific evidence.

It's theologically unsound. "We believe that the theory of evolution is a foundational scientific truth, one that has stood up to rigorous scrutiny and upon which much of human knowledge and achievement rests," states the Christian Clergy Letter, part of the Clergy Letter Project organized by former Butler University Dean Michael Zimmerman and endorsed by thousands of clergymen across the nation, including some in Fort Wayne. "We believe that among God's good gifts are human minds capable of critical thought and that the failure to fully employ this gift is a rejection of the will of our Creator."

It's bad for business. Good schools are a key to drawing economic investment because employers want a well-educated workforce and they need strong schools as an incentive to lure the best employees. How can a state positioning itself as a leader in the life sciences expect to recruit and retain top researchers in that field and others if it is perceived as an intellectual backwater?

It's unconstitutional. The founders included the Establishment Clause to prevent any governmental endorsement or support of religion. Creationism is a religious theory of the origin of life.

In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court's 7-2 ruling in Edwards v. Aguillard found that teaching creationism as science in public schools violated the Establishment Clause. In 2005, a federal district court ruled in Kitzmiller v. Dover that a public school district's requirement of teaching intelligent design as an alternative to evolution constituted a promotion of religion. The school board agreed to pay more than $1 million in legal fees and damages.

- The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette | Jan. 30

State control of higher education a bad notion

The most talked-about bills in the state Legislature this session that affect Indiana University are about money, as usual.

One would shift the power to set tuition and fees from the IU Board of Trustees to the state's higher education commission and budget committee, both controlled by the governor.

Another would limit pay for state employees — including university faculty and administrators — to no more than the governor's annual salary, which right now is $95,000.

The pay limit bill is extremely unlikely to make headway unless lawmakers really do want to ruin higher education in Indiana, with many, many faculty departing very quickly from our public universities for practically anywhere else if it were to become law.

Limits on tuition and fees, along with another bill that would rescind IU's 3.5 percent tuition increase for the 2012-13 school year, appeal to legislators wanting to help constituents where it matters most, in their wallets.

There is no question that the middle class is in danger of being priced out of a university degree. Too many students are burdened even before graduation with loans that could buy a small house. This is a critical concern with far reaching consequences if left unaddressed.

But it also is one that would not be solved by state control of tuition. The primary interest of IU's trustees absolutely must be to further the university's mission, while lawmakers' interests are broader. And they like to tell constituents they've saved them money.

Higher education's cost must be addressed, but handing over control of tuition to someone else isn't an answer. That will guarantee only a shift of power from the university to the state — a centralization that conservatives especially should abhor.

We have faith that the trustees are clear in their mission — with student education, including affordability, at the top of the list. But if the degrees those students earn are to have value, the trustees also must consider the whole university and make choices that balance multiple needs — but always with the primary mission paramount. If decision making moves further away, that mission is diluted or can change direction.

- The (Bloomington) Herald-Times | Jan. 25

Bloomington, please don't delay decision on I-69 again

As the date nears for officials from Bloomington and Monroe County, Ind., to make a decision on whether to cooperate with Indiana on the construction of Interstate 69 through their jurisdiction, the word comes that they might once again put it off.

The Herald-Times newspaper in Bloomington reported recently that members of the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) may postpone a Feb. 10 meeting, which had a vote planned on I-69.

We receive that news with disappointment, though with no surprise whatsoever. The majority of these planning board members have demonstrated in recent years their utter contempt for the highway that will run from Evansville to Indianapolis via Bloomington. But it is coming. Construction is under way and bearing down on Bloomington. It seems to matter not that the opponents are backed into a corner and now risk losing some $14 million in highway funds for their county for the year 2012.

The dilemma is that the Indiana Department of Transportation, which is planning and building the highway, cannot use federal funds for construction of the 1.75-mile link of the highway's Section Four in Monroe County without it being included in the planning group's local transportation document. However, INDOT can use other department funds for that small section of the overall highway and go ahead with construction.

On the other hand, INDOT does have the authority to withhold the $14 million intended by local planners for other transportation projects in Bloomington and Monroe County.

We are certain the state agency does not want to do that — that it is in everyone's best interest to see other transportation projects go forward in Bloomington — but the local planners seem to be leaving the state little choice. Given the inevitability of I-69 being completed, it makes no sense for the Bloomington group to hold out.

We note from The Herald-Times news report dated Jan. 14 that the MPO had received letters from National Highway Administration representative Bob Tally and another criticizing the behavior of some members of the public at the last meeting of the planning organization in November. The report quoted the group's chairman saying the meeting did get out of hand, but that the meeting was conducted in accordance with the planning group's bylaws.

Somehow, we're not surprised.

Let us hope that come Feb. 10, the Bloomington/Monroe County Metropolitan Planning Organization goes ahead with its meeting, decides to include I-69 in its plan and ends this childishness.

- Evansville Courier & Press | Jan. 24

So many deaths, so many questions

For a representative of state government, there cannot be a more difficult or more critical decision than whether to remove a child from a troubled family.

Thousands of such moves are made every year to protect kids from abuse and neglect, and caseworkers and their supervisors always must weigh the risk that the trauma of separation could ultimately be more harmful than the home setting.

For 23 Hoosier children since 2007, including six last year, being left in the home was a fatal decision.

As young as 5 months, killed by beating, stabbing, drug ingestion and a host of other unacceptable causes, all were to some degree on the radar of the Department of Child Services.

At least 17 others have died in the past five years as well; no one knows the full toll.

As The Star's Tim Evans reported Sunday, the deaths of kids with whom the DCS had some involvement have cast a shadow over clear progress the agency has made since reform of an abysmal system began in 2005.

The bad news does not stop there.

DCS also has failed to cut into the rate at which abuse or neglect occurs within six months of its intervention -- a key national benchmark.

Also, DCS is investigating a smaller percentage of reports it receives and substantiating a smaller percentage of those it investigates.

The DCS disputes critics who say it has failed to make children safer despite adding 800 field workers, improving training and belatedly joining a national trend of emphasizing family support as an alternative to institutional and foster care. The department also denies that funding cuts -- $320 million since 2009 -- have hurt.

Let the debate rage, in both the executive and legislative arenas. What must stay paramount is what The Star revealed from its investigation: that children died in dangerous circumstances that the DCS knew about and failed to act upon or acted upon inadequately. There may be explanations (confidentiality rules keep them unspoken), but what matters is outcome. The casualties are too many to consider reform of the protection system anywhere near accomplished. And even if the system cannot save every single child, that must be its goal.

- The Indianapolis Star | Jan. 24