Pat gets her second no-prize of the day for bringing us quite good news indeed:

All eight members up for re-election to the Pennsylvania school board that had been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to evolution in biology class were swept out of office yesterday by a slate of challengers who campaigned against the intelligent design policy.

One of the big reasons for the rise in power of the Christian right was their discovery that a) who's on the school board matters and b) turnout is so low in their election, a few hundred people who unite can elect anyone they want. Hence, all over America we ended up with school boards dominated by (usually well-intentioned) fundamentalists who really didn't represent the beliefs or wishes of their communities. And, notwithstanding the wailing and twirling of the occasional moonbat, that's the way it's stayed for at least the past fifteen years.

Until now.

Really, the system is actually working. People who cared ended up on the school board and, to be honest, probably did a fair job of running the place. It was only when their politics got in the way of their common sense that they ran afoul of, well, everyone else, and were shown the door.

This is not the first time I've seen this happen, and it won't be the last. Want to make sure your schools are run the way you want them to be? Get involved, figure out when the next school board election is, and vote.

It's that simple.