It was the Kansas State Board of Education (ten people) that stirred up the fuss, by rejecting portions of testing standards prepared for them by a committee chosen to do so. The Theory of Evolution was the significant subject matter eliminated from state testing standards, portions of which were rewritten by non-professionals in the area of education/testing/curriculum, and which were rather transparently espousing the views of Creationists. While various local school districts could include the teaching of Evolution and/or Creationism as they saw fit, this move by the State Board of Ed. had the practical effect of making science education in Kansas suspect, in that a graduate of any Kansas high school would not necessarily have been taught what the rest of the country (and most of the world) considers standard scientific knowledge.

In the most recent state election, the leader of the anti-Evolution faction lost her seat on the board and the "voting split" on this issue has shifted. I'm not sure whether or not the testing standards have been changed yet to what the original standards committee recommended, which would be in step with the rest of country, but it's a pretty sure bet that they will be.