"Evolution should remain part of the science standards for Arizona public high schools, despite what is being proposed by the state's top school official, Gov. Doug Ducey [R] said Monday [May 28, 2018]", the Arizona Daily Star (May 28, 2018) reported.
As NCSE previously reported, staffers at the Arizona state department of education tampered with the treatment of evolution and allied topics in the standards — not long after superintendent of public instruction Diane Douglas endorsed the teaching of "intelligent design" along with evolution at a Republican candidate forum in Tempe in November 2017, as KPHX in Phoenix (May 18, 2018) reported.
In addition to endorsing the retention of evolution in the state science standards, according to the Daily Star, "Ducey said as far as he's concerned, the concept of intelligent design or any sort of biblical concept of creation has no place in science classes." Also opposing the changes to the draft standards were twenty members of the state legislature in a May 24, 2018, letter (PDF) to Douglas, as KVOA in Tucson (May 25, 2018) reported.
The public comment period for the standards officially ended on May 28, 2018, but it was extended till May 31, 2018, owing to a website crash over the Memorial Day weekend. Before the crash, over seven hundred comments opposing the changes were tallied.
[Updated on May 30, 2018, to reflect the extension of the public comment period, and on June 1, 2018, to include Diane Douglas's title.]