He’s the only candidate for the position, and they’re going to have to start a write-in backchannel campaign to elect someone else. Mr. Willard, the Republican creationist, has this to say, from the New York Times:

Mr. Willard, who is in his fourth year on the 16-member national board, said in a telephone interview yesterday that issues like the teaching of evolution were best left to the states.

“We don’t set curriculum standards or anything like that,” Mr. Willard said of the national organization, adding that it handled issues like advising state boards on how to deal with governance concerns or influxes of immigrant students or ways to raise academic achievement among members of disadvantaged groups.

He said, though, that he personally thought students should be taught about challenges to the theory of evolution, like intelligent design. And while he said he had not heard of a possible challenge to his candidacy, Mr. Willard added that he was not surprised by it.

“Some people are mindless about their attacks on anyone questioning anything Darwin might have said,” Mr. Willard said.

A real gem, huh? And the guy would be leading a national group of people charged with leading in the field of education? This is an emergency. I’m thinking it calls for action on the part of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!