This is disturbing:

About a fifth of Arkansas teachers teach straight evolution, while another 30 percent teach “something along those lines,” according to a survey by state education officials. The other 50 percent don’t teach it, either because of their own weaknesses or community opposition. About 10 percent teach straight creationism.

Emphasis mine. 10% of Arkansas teachers teach straight creationism. If this is science teachers (and I have emailed the reporter for clarification), then 10% of science teachers are deliberately teaching something that is not supported by even so much as an ounce of scientific evidence. they are betraying their professional responsibilities and imposing the religious beliefs of some parts of the community upon their students, either out of personal moral failing or becasue they are afraid for their jobs.

And fear for their jobs was very real:

As governor, Huckabee funded a creationist museum and loudly endorsed the teaching of “creation science.” While his political allies in the state legislature twice introduced bills to ban the teaching of evolution, Huckabee presided over a school system that earned a “D” in science education and an “F” in teaching evolution. Only about a fifth of the science teachers in Arkansas taught evolution, though it was part of the school science education guidelines.

… But Huckabee’s obvious sympathies, and the intransigence of Fundamentalist school board officials, led Arkansas science educators to self-censor. Administrators cautioned science educators against using the “e-word” in their encounters with schools and students. At the Arkansas Museum of Discovery, the traditional state science museum, for example, museum officials removed an evolution exhibit amid a whispering campaign about the ire of conservative powers.

… Plenty of Arkansas politicians endorse creationism. In 2001, conservative state Rep. Jim Holt introduced a bill that banned the imparting of “fraudulent or false information”—specifically, the age of the earth or the origins of life—in Arkansas schools, museums or other state-funded programs. It died in committee, but a few years later, Mark Martin introduced another bill, which was squashed for procedural reasons. Huckabee isn’t on record about either bill. Nor did he comment on the ruckus over the anti-evolution stickers that the Beebe, Arkansas School Board removed from its science textbook in 2005 under threat of a lawsuit from the American Civil Liberties Union.

When people talk about doing away with tenure or making it easier to fire teachers without proving cause, remember that they are also, intentionally or not, arguing for allowing school administrators to fire teachers who stand up for science and against religious indoctrination in our schools.

And, no, teaching evolution is not imposing religious beliefs. Evolution has nothing to do with religion. It is a scientific pursuit and it is taught becasue it is what the overwhelming scientific evidence supports. Claiming that evolution is imposing religious beliefs is either the result of not understanding what the words “religion” or “science” mean or a deliberate lie.