In Texas, biology professors have rallied in support of a state official who says she was forced to resign because she sent an eMail message promoting a lecture that was critical of intelligent design. The controversy comes as science standards in Texas are due for a 10-year review in 2008.

And in Florida, state officials are poised to adopt new science standards that would use the term “evolution” for the first time—although the new draft standards have drawn a flood of public comments, many of which are critical of the proposed changes.

How these debates play out in such key battleground states has huge implications for the nation’s students, at a time when many believe science teaching in the United States is facing something of a crisis.

U.S. students were outperformed, on average, by 16 other industrialized countries in science on a recent international exam, sparking new calls to improve math and science instruction to keep the nation competitive in the global economy.

It’s widely accepted within the scientific community that evolution is the foundation for all biological studies. And that was the gist of a letter stressing the importance of teaching students about evolution, sent by biology professors from across Texas to Texas Education Commissioner Robert Scott on Dec. 10.

“It is inappropriate to expect the [Texas Education Agency’s] director of science curriculum to ‘remain neutral’ on this subject, any more than astronomy teachers should ‘remain neutral’ about whether the Earth goes around the sun,” the letter stated.

“Far from remaining neutral, it is the clear duty of the science staff at TEA and all other Texas educators to speak out unequivocally: evolution is a central pillar in any modern science education, while ‘intelligent design’ is a religious idea that deserves no place in the science classroom at all.”

More than 100 faculty members from the universities of Texas, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Texas State, North Texas, Houston, Rice, and Baylor signed the letter.

“I’m an evolutionary biologist, and I and many others simply feel that good evolution education is key to understanding biology as a whole,” said Daniel Bolnick of the University of Texas (UT), who started collecting signatures last week.

The professors sent the letter in response to the departure of long-time education veteran Chris Comer, who said evolution politics were behind her forced resignation last month as the state’s director of science curriculum.