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Palin Takes Measured Tack On Alaska's School Issues

Although Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has espoused conservative positions on teaching creationism and abstinence-only sex education, the Republican vice presidential nominee has not pushed those beliefs into state policy.

“She would often articulate her personal beliefs, but I never thought she was going to shove those down our throats,” said former Alaska Commissioner of Education Roger Sampson, who is now the president of the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.

Mr. Sampson, whose tenure as state schools chief overlapped with Gov. Palin’s first eight months in office, was one of two agency leaders whom Gov. Palin kept from the previous administration when she took...