Quit Spanking the Monkey

On August 24th the New York Times reported that "Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal education grant for low-income college students."

A spokesperson for the Department of education claimed that the omission was a mistake. Nonetheless, "Scientists who knew about the omission also said they found the clerical explanation unconvincing, given the furor over challenges by the religious right to the teaching of evolution in public schools. It's just awfully coincidental, said Steven W. Rissing, an evolutionary biologist at Ohio State University."

Fishy indeed. As far as the LHG can tell, evolutionary biology is still off the list. Doesn't the Department of Education have bigger issues to deal with? Lets take just one example: In a major city like Miami 48 percent of adults 20 and and over never graduated from high school.

Maybe improving our public schools is in order - maybe the Department of Education should quit spanking the monkey and get down to work.