Good news for Minnesota education

Dave Eaton, Mouth of Yecke, public advocate of poor education, creationist pest, has given up the fight.

On Tuesday, January 31, School Board member Dave Eaton resigned from the Minnetonka School Board. Noting personal reasons, he informed the Board that he is no longer able to continue his service. Mr. Eaton had served on the School Board since being appointed on June 4, 2002.

The School Board is expected to act on Mr. Eaton's resignation at its Regular Meeting on Thursday, February 2, 2006. The Board will discuss a process for filling the vacancy at a scheduled work session on February 7 at Noon. Complete details of the process the Board will use to fill the Board vacancy will be released following the February 7th work session.

I hope that all is well with Mr Eaton and that he is retiring to a pleasant and productive life, but it is good news that he is going to be meddling with education less. This is also, I hope, a promising sign: as wonderful as the Dover decision was, a better prospect for the future would be to see more pro-science activists displacing creationists from local school boards. That's one place where it is important to see this phony conflict resolved.

More like this

The Minnetonka school district is one of the best in Minnesota, with an exceptionally concerned and active set of parents and teachers who work hard to keep informed and support their schools. They established an organization, TonkaFocus, to oppose creationism in the schools and attempts to…
Sorry for not posting an update last Friday, but I was in the Board meeting and then on a plane. I gather most of you found the news update at NCSE's website, where traffic hit record levels. As you recall, the Texas State Board of Education met on Thursday as the Committee of the Full Board to…
In case you've not heard, several the pro-science candidates for the Kansas Board of Education were victorious in the primary election last night. If current results hold, it looks like the creationists on the 10-member Kansas Board of Education have lost two seats in the Republican primary. The…
Virginia Heffernan did us all a favor: it's easy now to tell who the ignoramuses are by looking for favorable reactions to her ill-informed screed. And of course, if you want to find a real ignoramus, we wouldn't even need that much: we could just look to Rod Dreher, apologist and apparatchik of…

Good riddance!

JJ

By Jeff Jorgensen (not verified) on 02 Feb 2006 #permalink

Keep an eye out. The Reps like regurgitating these people into spin-tank leadership roles and propping them up as the freedom fighters they aren't.

By BlueIndependent (not verified) on 02 Feb 2006 #permalink

I agree with BlueIndependent. Eaton has too much invested in the DI and other neo-con issues to let it go this easily.

By Melanie Reap (not verified) on 02 Feb 2006 #permalink

I second Melanie's and BlueIndependent's suspicions, but there's more good news, and that is that one of our guides ran for state senate in that area last fall and won (Terri Bonoff). She opposes the teaching of intelligent [sic] design.

So, PZ, why don't you apply for the opening? It's likely a part-time job and you could not only defend but work toward improving science education in your state.

The Berlinski meddling continues, however:

http://tinyurl.com/9x5px

He never learns a bit about science, or why science in fact is the only way to discover most of what we find in the "physical world". Anyhow, my elaboration on this theme is at the sixth post on that thread.

Glen D
http://tinyurl.com/b8ykm

By Glen Davidson (not verified) on 02 Feb 2006 #permalink

Consider the following:

On January 31, Bush makes AP and IB (International Baccalaureate) centerpieces of his new education initiatives.

On January 31, Dave Eaton, who was one of those who savaged Minnetonka's IB program ("... promotes atheism, etc."), resigns from the Minnetonka school board.

Coincidence?

Good news for the Minnetonka schools. My concern is what he plans to do with his time now. He has taken his snake oil show on the road once already. He might be coming to your town.

By Dave Puskala (not verified) on 03 Feb 2006 #permalink