112) Without financial support from the government, these private schools are not obligated to follow state education standards, which gives free reign for creationists to teach their own curriculum, but they still must meet certain requirements to continue to keep their school open. According to the Council for American Public Education (CAPE) website, 10% of all US students attend private schools, and of those students, 79% of them attend a religiously-affiliated private school. This means around 8% of all students in the US are possibly exposed to creationism as a valid scientific theory in competition with evolution. In fact, there are charter schools in Texas that teach creationism and undermine evolution. Responsive Education Solutions is a charter school company that alleges to teaching, “a balanced look at differing opinions on the theory of evolution, as state curriculum standards require.” (Wermund, paragraph 5) Despite this claim, RES’s textbooks prove the opposite; in describing the origin of life, “[the textbook] includes a quote from the Bible, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.’” (Wermund, paragraph 13) Even though creationists cannot teach what they want in private schools, they are still reaching a portion of the American youth through these private, religiously-affiliated schools, continuing to preach the word of God as the
112) Without financial support from the government, these private schools are not obligated to follow state education standards, which gives free reign for creationists to teach their own curriculum, but they still must meet certain requirements to continue to keep their school open. According to the Council for American Public Education (CAPE) website, 10% of all US students attend private schools, and of those students, 79% of them attend a religiously-affiliated private school. This means around 8% of all students in the US are possibly exposed to creationism as a valid scientific theory in competition with evolution. In fact, there are charter schools in Texas that teach creationism and undermine evolution. Responsive Education Solutions is a charter school company that alleges to teaching, “a balanced look at differing opinions on the theory of evolution, as state curriculum standards require.” (Wermund, paragraph 5) Despite this claim, RES’s textbooks prove the opposite; in describing the origin of life, “[the textbook] includes a quote from the Bible, ‘In the beginning God created the heavens and the Earth.’” (Wermund, paragraph 13) Even though creationists cannot teach what they want in private schools, they are still reaching a portion of the American youth through these private, religiously-affiliated schools, continuing to preach the word of God as the