--- title: Scott Walker's Evolution Comments Challenged By High School Teacher description: The Republican presidential hopeful refused to answer a recent question about evolution. The governor's former science teacher tells TIME she isn't pleased canonical: https://time.com/3710087/scott-walker-evolution/ author: Jack Dickey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-15T12:00:38.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:40:50.030Z article:section: Politics og:title: Republican's High School Teacher Says He Should 'Man Up' on Evolution og:description: 'He had a good sense,' the teacher tells TIME og:url: https://time.com/3710087/scott-walker-evolution/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb080c777cd20ef8a/69877f555f570f9998b15491/rtr4nn8g.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker participates in a panel discussion at the American Action Forum og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Republican's High School Teacher Says He Should 'Man Up' on Evolution twitter:description: 'He had a good sense,' the teacher tells TIME twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltb080c777cd20ef8a/69877f555f570f9998b15491/rtr4nn8g.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Scott Walker's High-School Science Teacher: 'Man Up' > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=ce1aa6c8-3e53-43a6-a5fe-82fa4bbe0354&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Science Cop Takes on Climate Change Denying Senator Jim Inhofe [Watch (HLS stream): Science Cop Takes on Climate Change Denying Senator Jim Inhofe](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/UbAmQMaL.m3u8) (3:52)  _Published 2014-12-04. When the GOP takes control of the U.S. Senate, Oklahoma's James Inhofe— a global warming denier—becomes chair of the Environment Committee_  by [Jack Dickey](https://time.com/author/jack-dickey/)  ## Jack Dickey Feb 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC  Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker participates in a panel discussion at the American Action Forum in Washington, Jan. 30, 2015. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker participates in a panel discussion at the American Action Forum in Washington, Jan. 30, 2015. Yuri Gripas—Reuters  by [Jack Dickey](https://time.com/author/jack-dickey/)  ## Jack Dickey Feb 15, 2015 12:00 PM UTC Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker—a leader in the 2016 Republican presidential sweepstakes—prompted some stateside head-scratching this week when he dodged a British journalist’s question about evolution. Walker said, “I’m going to punt on that one… That’s a question that a politician shouldn’t be involved in one way or another.” He was in London on a trade mission. Among those who questioned Walker: the chair of his high school science department, Ann Serpe, 73\. “Answer the question when they ask you!” Serpe said in an interview. “He could have manned up a bit. That’s what I would tell him.” Serpe, who taught chemistry and chaired the math and science department at Delavan-Darien High School in Delavan, Wis., before her retirement in 1998, now lives in nearby Elkhorn. She recalls that Walker, her pupil and an advisee in student government, was a bright, committed participant in class. Walker graduated in 1986. What would Walker have learned in high school? “We taught the theory of evolution, and human evolution, as a prerequisite to understanding biological classification. I went out and looked at my biology textbook just to make sure.” Serpe says, “I don’t know the dogma of the Baptist church where Scott’s father was the minister, as it concerns evolution. But I do recall that Scott was very accepting of everything in science class. He had a good sense of it.” Walker’s onetime teacher has seen him a few times since his high-school days. She even attended one of Walker’s fundraisers in Milwaukee. Darwin, though, hasn’t come up in their conversations. She says she hopes he—”as an intelligent young man”—would understand the importance of scientific thought, that evolution and creation are not mutually exclusive. Walker, who may be two decades removed from Serpe’s classroom, said on Twitter that science still informs his worldview. > [](https://twitter.com/ScottWalker/status/565636939559489538) ### 10 Vetoes That Shaped Recent Political History  Universal Child Care, Nixon, 1971 America came close to a system of universal, federally financed day care. But after the Comprehensive Child Development Act passed Congress on a bipartisan vote in 1971, President Nixon vetoed it, arguing it would weaken families with "communal approaches to child rearing." The idea then faded from American politics. (Photo: University of Denver nursery, Oct. 13, 1971.) John Preito—Denver Post/Getty Images  Freedom of Information Act, Ford, 1974 President Ford vetoed the Freedom of Information Act, which would make many classified records public, out of concern that it would endanger national security. But with the memory of the Watergate scandal still fresh, Congress voted overwhelmingly to override the veto. (Photo: Donald Rumsfeld and President Ford on Marine One in 1974.) David Hume Kennerly—Getty Images  Apartheid Sanctions, Reagan, 1986 President Reagan vetoed a bill that would have imposed sanctions on the pro-apartheid South African government, calling it "economic warfare." But Congress overrode him and imposed the sanctions anyway, and Reagan's chief of staff later said the president regretted his veto. (Photo: People protesting the Apartheid government at Kwanobuhle stadium in South Africa.) William F. Campbell—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Clean Water Act, Reagan, 1986 President Reagan pocket-vetoed the Clean Water Act of 1986 over concerns about its cost, despite the $20 billion bill passing both houses of Congress unanimously. The bill would have provided funding to clean up the nation's bodies of water over the next eight years. (Photo: A sewage plant in the Hudson River t in New York City, 1978.) Ted Spiegel—National Geographic/Getty Images  Civil Rights Act of 1990, Bush, Sr. After the Supreme Court limited the ability of workers to sue for employment discrimination, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1990 to strengthen those laws. President George H.W. Bush vetoed the bill, arguing it would lead to "quotas" then signed a less expansive version of the bill the following year. (Photo: Jesse Jackson and other civil rights figures lead marchers across the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the recreation of the 1965 Selma to Montgomery march in Selma, Ala. on March 4, 1990.) Jamie Sturtevant—AP  Partial-birth Abortion, Clinton, 1996 President Clinton drew the ire of religious and anti-abortion groups in 1996 when he vetoed the "partial-birth abortion bill"’ which outlawed certain abortion procedures even when they would save the life of the mother. Clinton called the measure "potentially life-saving, certainly health-saving." The bill was later signed into law by President George W. Bush. (Photo: Anti-abortion supporters in Washington on Jan. 22,1997.) Denis Paquin—AP  Estate Tax, Clinton, 1999 When President Clinton vetoed a $792 billion tax cut in 1999, Congressional Republicans began trying to pass it piece-by-piece the following year. But Clinton vetoed those too, including their repeal of the federal estate tax. Clinton said repealing the estate tax was “wrong on the grounds of fairness and it is wrong on the grounds of fiscal priorities.” Shawn Thew—AFP/Getty Images  Stem Cell Research, Bush, 2006 President Bush used his first veto on an emotional and divisive issue, even within political parties: stem cell research. In 2006 Congress passed a bill that would lift funding restrictions on human embryonic stem cell research, but Bush said the measure “would support the taking of innocent human life in the hope of finding medical benefits for others.” (Photo: Bush announces his veto in a room with mothers and babies born from frozen embryos). MCT/Getty Images  Iraq Withdrawal, Bush, 2007 President George W. Bush vetoed a war-spending bill in 2007 that called for the withdrawal of all military troops by the following year. “It makes no sense to tell the enemy when you plan to start withdrawing,” the president said. U.S. troops left Iraq in 2011 under President Obama. (Photo: Soldiers return to Combat Outpost Casino after a mission in the Gazaliyah neighborhood of Baghdad, Iraq on Feb. 16, 2007.) Chris Hondros—Getty Images  Interstate Recognition of Notarizations, Obama, 2010 President Obama used his first veto on a relatively unglamorous bill: the Interstate Recognition of Notarizations Act of 2010\. The bill aimed to promote interstate commerce by requiring states to accept notarizations from any state. Obama vetoed the bill because he worried it would facilitate foreclosure fraud. Olivier Douliery—Pool/Getty Images ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] They say elections have consequences. Well, we're about to experience a doozy. And it's because when voters elected Republicans to a majority of both Chambers of Congress, they effectively put Oklahoma Senator and long- time climate change denier, James Inhofe. In charge of the Senate's climate policy. This is the same James Inhofe who has called climate change quote, the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people. So let's see what science thinks of what the senator has to say. [ MUSIC ] The claim that global warming is caused by man- made emissions is simply untrue, and not based on sound science. Decades of research by international climatologists, none of them Senators from fossil fuel states, say otherwise. Indeed, there is a 97 % consensus among scientists that climate change has been proven, and that humans play a big role. The United Nations intergovernmental panel on climate change says decisively, quote, " we have overwhelming evidence that it is happening and that it is real .". CO2 does not actually cause catastrophic disasters. Actually it would be good for our environment and our economy. That one may be true. Provided you're willing to overlook a few things. Global sea levels have risen by 6. 7 inches in the past century. Autumn ice cover in the Arctic is 23 % below average. From 1980 to 2010 there were 99 weather related disasters in the US costing at least a billion dollars. Apiece. Stubborn droughts are punishing vast swaths of the American West and the 20 hottest years in the last century have occurred since 1980, which is part of the famous hockey stick graph. The hockey stick was completely and thoroughly broken once and for all in 2006. Two Canadian researchers tore apart the statistical foundation for the hockey stick. Wrong again, just last year the National Science Foundation studied ice core samples from 73 locations around the world and found that the Earth is currently warmer than it's been for 70 to 80 % of the last 11, 300 years. In the last 5, 000 years Earth actually slowly cooled by 1. 3 degrees. But it made up all the heat it lost in just the last 100 years. And then there's the religious argument. God's still up there. And this is the arrogance of people to think that we, human beings would be able to change what he is doing in the climate, is to me outrageous. It's a favorite trope of people like Inhofe to frame faith and science as binary choices. But you can believe that God created the earth and still accept the fact that we have the power to mess it up. The same God would've created rivers and tigers too. That doesn't mean we're not capable of polluting the rivers until almost nothing can live in them or hunting the tigers nearly to extinction. Finally, in [ UNKNOWN ], Michael Crichton's anti- climate science novel State of Fear. I think I've read most of his books. I enjoyed most State of Fear, and made it required reading for the environment committee. Just to be clear, the book was a novel. Which is to say, fiction. Which is to say, it was all made up. When it comes to Inhofe and science, that pretty much explains everything. 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