"'I don't think I share a common ancestor with a tree. However, most of the books we are considering adopting, claim as a fact that we all share a common ancestor with a tree.'

Brilliant! This guy doesn't understand the most basic principles of biology, and he's going to chair the State Board of Education."

I hope the guy who wrote this article and that second paragraph doesn't teach elementary school kids or higher. Anti-Creationists can have insufficient imagination to grasp the full extent of what they think they support. If you told this guy that not only is he related to a tree, but much more closely related to a fungus, he'd probably have a conniption.