Editing Santorum Amendment (section)

{{Short description|Failed amendment to US 2001 education bill}}
{{Intelligent Design}}
{{Education in the U.S.}}
The '''Santorum Amendment''' was a failed proposed amendment to the 2001 education funding bill (which became known as the [[No Child Left Behind Act]]) that promoted the teaching of [[intelligent design]] while questioning the academic standing of [[evolution]] in US public schools. (It was proposed by [[United States Republican Party|Republican]] [[Rick Santorum]], then a [[United States Senate|United States Senator]] for [[Pennsylvania]].) In response, a coalition of 96 scientific and educational organizations wrote a letter to the [[conference committee]], urging that the amendment be stricken from the final bill and arguing that evolution is regarded as fact in the scientific fields and that the amendment creates the misperception of evolution not being fully accepted in the scientific community and thus weakening science education. The words of the amendment survive in modified form in the bill's conference committee report but do not carry the weight of law. As one of the [[Discovery Institute intelligent design campaigns]] it became a cornerstone in the [[intelligent design movement|intelligent design movement's]] "[[teach the Controversy|teach the controversy]]" campaign.