As a denizen of a college town, my encounters with children are rare and brief and they leave me wondering the fatality rate from roller skate shoe inserts. The children I see mostly are in the playground next to the Dole Institute. My concern for children has amplified, and not just because the playground also connects to the Center for Experimental Biology.

State Board of Education elections are approaching on Nov. 4. This means the evolution debate is off the back burner again and tasting like burnt PTO fundraising kettle corn. For the past four years, the Board has had a 6-4 conservative majority. However, only one Board member is running for re-election. The Board, and the state science curriculum, is again up for grabs.

The BOE doesn’t seem germane to college voters. Most simply vote down the party line on the ballot anyway. However, uninformed voting produces ramifications even for post-secondary students.

First, evolution is almost unanimously accepted by professionals in every scientific arena. Failing to teach evolution properly in public schools misrepresents academic discourse. It also prompts tepid approaches to the subject from teachers, which results in incongruent knowledge among students.

Unsystematic curriculums inadequately prepare children for higher education and inhibit interest in science-related fields. Scientific inquiry from adolescents is especially pertinent now, when innovative biology and chemistry can benefit from advanced technology, which cures fatal diseases, harnesses new medications and uploads my consciousness onto my computer so I don’t have to keep re-typing my Facebook password. Children may be loud and dirty, but their bowl cuts and Aeropostale polos comprise future opportunities.

The Kansas evolution debate is not insular. A great portion of the country already assumes we still churn our own butter, and our ongoing evolution debate makes us seem just as archaic to the rest of the nation. You can bet generalizations about our incompetence won’t stop at high school diplomas. Kansans, including KU students, are all lumped under the same steeple-bearing roof of ignorance. The Bible Belt isn’t just seen as a giant yellow girdle of wheat on the waist of America – others consider it a constricting element upon the knowledge and credibility of all of us, not just grade school children. Electing a candidate who won’t amply this negative image is crucial to improving everyone’s reputation.

In the local district, the Democratic candidate is Carolyn Campbell, a state legislator who has been involved with the Topeka Public Schools Board of Education since 1995. She trounces Republican candidate Bob Meissner in public service and political experience. She adamantly supports teaching evolution.

In comparison, Meissner has been a practicing dentist for the past 31 years. He served on the Shawnee Mission School Board of Education for 12 years. He ran four years ago for the Board but lost to Democrat Bill Wagnon. Under Meissner, health class curriculums will benefit greatly from increased Timmy the Tooth cartoons, but science will suffer. Meissner does not believe in outright banning evolution, but he does support “the debate over different theories” of life origin within the scientific discipline. This all sounds open-minded, but “alternative views” usually mean a candidate is cradling intelligent design under a coat of objectivity, which is one deadly conceal and carry law.

There are plenty of other reasons to elect either candidate. Schools need adequate funding and effective teachers. But they also need officials who are acutely aware of appropriate curriculums. Take the time to elect someone with that knowledge.

You’ll be at the polls anyway, right?

— Oberthaler is a Wichita junior in English.