The Discovery Institute Has Been Mucking Around in Florida

The nefarious Discovery Institute, the Creation Science think tank, is often secretive about its activities. It has not been entirely clear that they have been involved in the recent fight in Florida over the use of the word "evolution" and the teaching of mainstream, scientifically informed evolutionary biology, in public schools. Going with the interpretation of The Gradebook, the Discover Institute ...

acknowledged on its Evolution News & Views blog today that it provided information to Fred Cutting, the member of the standards-writing committee who recently submitted a minority report on the issue.

"Mr. Cutting inquired with us for information about solid evolution education, and we were happy to supply it, along with input on his draft Minority Report," the post says. "By the way," it continues, "we constantly receive inquiries from students, teachers, school board members and other educators from all around the United States who want information about how they can teach evolution in a more objective fashion, and we help out whenever we can."

[source]

The Grade Book also provides this discussion of the Cutting Report.

Mechanical engineer Fred Cutting, who sat on the committee that rewrote Florida's science standards, isn't satisfied with the section on evolution. He considers the section so "dogmatic," in fact, that the Pinellas County retiree has submitted a minority report to the State Board of Education for its consideration.

Cutting has been clearly linked to the Intelligent Design mob in the past, though he denies any connection with the idea at present.