Senate Education Committee holds hearing on bill asking DPI to include intelligent design in next science standards

At a public hearing, the Senate Education Committee considered Senate Bill 2,355, sponsored by Senator Donald Dwyer, which would request that the Department of Public Instruction include “intelligent design” when it next revises the state's science content standards for elementary and secondary students.

The bill drew divided testimony. Senator Dwyer framed the measure as encouraging ‘‘the search for truth’’ and said the proposal would add intelligent design alongside evolution in the standards-writing process; he also offered an amendment to phrase the request so the state could preserve federal funding available to support the standards-writing committees. Opponents — including the American Civil Liberties Union of North Dakota and multiple scientists and science educators — said intelligent design is a form of creationism, not a scientific theory, that it makes no testable hypotheses, and that including it in public-school science curricula would raise serious constitutional concerns and invite costly litigation.

Why it matters: The hearing focused on whether a concept many scientists characterize as religious should be brought into public-school science standards. Witnesses for the bill argued it would broaden students’ critical-thinking skills; witnesses against the bill said it would undermine science education and likely prompt lawsuits similar to the 2005 federal case about the Dover, Pa., school district.

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