Me writes:
A bit off topic I suppose, but my point is: Why not let them? Presumably students in these schools will start failing their exams at this point, and parents will start withdrawing them. If a Creationist group then set their own exams, presumably few commercial organisations or universities will accept these as valid.
Here in the states, almost all public school education (public means provided by the government) is local. Taxes assessed on local property are used to fund the operations of the town, which includes providing public school education. The buildings, teacher's salaries, sports programs, books, etc, are all paid for by these taxes.
Unless you opt for private schools (in which case you not only have to pay private school tuition, but also your local property taxes even though your children no longer attend public schools), in most cases children must attend the public schools in the town where they reside. If your town chooses to stop teaching evolution you cannot send your children to a nearby town where evolution is still taught. You can send them to private school, but that gets expensive and not everyone can afford it, so insuring that public schools continue to teach a full curriculum of science is important to most people here in the states.
I don't know much about the American educational system, but you must have centrally-moderated examination syllabuses? I presume these are nation-wide, and therefore proof against hijacking by a small group?
There are no educational standards at the national level. The closest we come here is state boards of education that usually develop a general curriculum for local schools to follow. A few years ago the Kansas Board of Education removed evolution from the science curriculum causing a state-wide uproar and a national embarrassment. In the next election (board members are elected, not appointed, in Kansas - it varies from state to state) two of the three responsible board members were up for reelection and were turned out of office, and evolution was restored to the guidelines.
State guidelines are just that - guidelines. Local cities and towns do not have to adhere to the guidelines, but many don't have the resources to develop their own curriculums, plus text book publishers tend to strongly follow state guidelines to increase their sales.
As you can see, there's a lot at stake.
--Percy
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