The United States cannot accept efforts to undermine the teaching of science. Our focus should be to raise the level of scientific literacy among our citizenry because we face a critical shortage of scientists in the next two decades. As a public research university, we have a special mission to educate tomorrow's scientists and to support the science teachers who will inspire young people to become chemists, geologists, biologists and physicists. Let us use the evolution controversy to intensify our efforts to provide a world-class education to our students and to support the faculty who engage in the important research and teaching missions of our schools and universities.