Hi, Tom--

We had a concerted attempt to make creationism a part of the biology curriculum in the middle school and high school here. Only after there was a serious insult to non-traditional families (read: any family except two biological parents and the children thereof) did the community at large actually sit up and look at what was happening and mount an effort to remove the "tax-saving conservatives" (the platform on which they ran) from office. They were replaced by more Republicans, but not the kind that are a threat to scientific literacy.

People tend not to pay attention. If the money goes to unaccountable agencies, it will unaccountably be used for things we can't account for.

It's my opinion that people's lack of attention is also at the bottom of the public school problem, that is, if more people went to the committee meetings or the board meetings or gave the schools 2 hours a month of on-site work to see what was happening, things that are big problems now would be corrected when small through community support &/or pressure, instead of the "shocked surprise" response we're getting now. But that's another whole topic.

Regards--
Mary Anne