On the New School Board Appointees in Kentucky

First a quote from the Kentucky Post:

According to the Courier-Journal, Fletcher spokesman Brett Hall has said the governor has been disappointed in some board members' responses to his ideas on issues like intelligent design and repealing the state's prevailing wage law that mandates school districts and local governments pay the average local wage for construction projects.

The existing board has not endorsed those views.

At least one new member, Wilburn "Joe" Brothers of Elizabethtown, said he has an open mind about public schools teaching intelligent design, which attributes the existence of complex organisms to an unidentified intelligent cause. That contrasts with the theory of evolution, which maintains that life evolved over time through natural selection.

Earlier this year, Fletcher posed a rhetorical question during his State of the Commonwealth speech: "What is wrong with teaching 'intelligent design' in our schools?"

Brothers said Fletcher interviewed him personally, but the two did not discuss the idea.

"From what I'm familiar with about it, I'm comfortable with the idea," Brothers said. "But obviously there's a lot of things to consider."

Here is a quick rundown of Governor Fletcher's new school board appointees:

C.B. Akins, Sr., Pastor of First Baptist Bracktown in Lexington.

Kay Baird of Pikeville, member of the First Presbyterian Church of Pikeville, where she has served as an elder and chairman of the Christian Education Committee.

Wilburn Brothers, member of the Elizabethtown Church of Christ and has participated in several missionary trips to the Ukraine.

Jeanne H. Ferguson, graduated from Ursuline in Louisville.

John Douglas Hubbard, member of Bardstown United Methodist Church.

R. Keith Travis, an elder in the Benton Church of Christ.

Gail W. Wells, who has no religious affiliation listed.

I'm interested in their religious affiliations because of what insight it could provide into their positions on Intelligent Design. I'll be researching this a little more as time goes on.

The best bios I have found so far are online here.

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• idkentucky
• intelligentdesign
• kentucky
• politics