Textbook Committees:
Historically, this has been one of the creationist's most successful tactics. The idea here is to influence the treatment of evolution in biology textbooks, insuring that the subject is mentioned only briefly or not at all. Dorothy Nelkin describes how this tactic works:
"Twenty-two states, including Texas and California (the largest consumers of textbooks), make major educational decisions through centralized state school boards and textbook commissions. These are composed of teachers and layman, often political appointees. The commissions meet every five or six years to select textbooks in various subject areas for the state board of education. While local school districts can use textbooks that do not appear on the list, there are financial incentives to order state-approved textbooks, for these are usually the only books that are subsidized. Thus, it becomes extremely important for publishers to have their books on these lists, especially in the more populous states. State recommendations also influence the general policies of textbook publishers, who normally do not print separate editions for each state. A decision in California or Texas may have repercussions throughout the industry, affecting the character of books available in the whole country. Thus, textbook watchers direct much of their energy toward the state boards of education and curriculum committees, hoping to influence the state-approved textbook lists." (Nelkin, 1982, pp 93-94)
The creationist effort to influence the state textbook committees usually focuses on a handful of large states, where they can the get maximum effect for a minimum expenditure of money and manpower. The state of California alone, for instance, accounts for over ten percent of all money spent on textbooks in the United States. Another large state, Texas, has traditionally been sympathetic to the creationists (in 1994, the Republican Party in Texas adopted a platform plank advocating teaching creationism in the schools), and also accounts for a large portion of the textbook market. In both of these states, creationists attempt to win a majority on the textbook selection committees so they can influence the content of biology textbooks.
By pressuring these large markets towards expunging or limiting mention of evolution in textbooks, the creationists hope to influence the textbooks which are made available to other states as well. And such efforts seem to have been at least partially successful. In the late 1970's, when creationists were attempting to pressure the California state education committee to mandate "equal treatment" for creation science, The most widely- used biology textbook in the state (also used throughout the country), Biology: Living Systems, dropped the number of index entries under "evolution" from 17 lines of references in 1973 to just 3 lines in 1979.
The textbook publisher's interest is economic (it is, after all, much less expensive for publishers to produce a single "safe" version for nationwide use rather than a version without evolution for use in those states which have rejected such texts, and a separate version, including evolution, for other states). Some publishers who have caved in to this sort of creationist pressure have attempted to justify this by trying to sound open-minded. Louis Arnold, the senior science editor of Prentice-Hall, remarked in 1980, "We don't advocate the idea of scientific creation, but we felt we had to represent other points of view." (Godfrey, 1983, p. 25) Other publishers were more blunt about their motivations: "Creation has no place in biology books," one publisher acknowledged, "but after all we are in the business of selling textbooks." (Nelkin, 1982, p. 154)
In addition to attempting to pressure mainstream science text publishers to modify or reduce their treatment of evolution (and perhaps add some material about creation "science"), the creationists have also actively produced textbooks of their own and attempted to pressure state school boards into approving them for use. Henry Morris's book Scientific Creationism was originally written for use in public school biology classrooms, as was Duane Gish's book Evolution? The Fossils Say No! Neither of these books has been widely adopted, however, since they are loaded with religious references and are constitutionally unacceptable. To make up for this, creationists have produced newer texts which they say are free of such religious references, and suitable for use in public school classrooms. Two of these are Biology: A Search for Order in Complexity, produced by the Creation Science Research Center, and Of Pandas and People: The Central Question of Biological Origins, produced by the Foundation for Thought and Ethics.
In the late 1980's, the state of Texas mandated that all biology textbooks carry a disclaimer stating that evolutionary science was "only a theory" and was "not established fact". (This provision was withdrawn in 1990.) Despite this symbolic victory, however, efforts to have creationist textbooks adopted by state education committees have not been very successful. (Creationists in 1995 managed to convince the Alabama state school board to include a disclaimer in all biology textbooks stating that evolution was a "controversial theory", and listing all the standard creationist arguments against evolution (ICR Acts and Facts, January 1995, p. 4), but it is doubtful that this policy will survive a court challenge.) The CSRC book was approved by the state of Indiana in the mid 1970's, but was removed in 1977 after the State Supreme Court ruled that it advanced religious beliefs and was therefore unconstitutional. In 1989, a church campaign in Alabama gathered over 11,800 signatures on a petition to place Of Pandas and People on the list of approved textbooks, but the state board refused to grant approval, citing the book's religious framework. In the early 1990's, both Idaho and Alabama considered placing Pandas on their approved lists, but turned it down. As of 1995, no creationist-produced textbook is on the approved list in any state.
However, this does not prevent the creationists from continuing their efforts to get their textbooks into the public schools.