Proposed social studies textbooks for Texas public schools will not include climate-change denial. In late reversals, two publishing heavyweights, Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill, have both confirmed that they will submit corrected textbooks this week at the SBOE. TFN distributed the following news release in response to the corrections.
Publishers have agreed to correct or remove inaccurate passages promoting climate change denialism from new social studies textbooks proposed for Texas public schools, a coalition of science and education groups announced this afternoon. This news comes as the State Board of Education prepares for a second public hearing on the proposed textbooks and a final vote on which texts to approve for Texas schools. The textbooks will likely be sold in other states as well.
Prior to today, publishers Pearson Education, WorldView Software and Studies Weekly Publications had already submitted to Texas education officials revisions to textbook passages that had included inaccurate information about climate change. The original passages had cast doubt on the overwhelming consensus among climate scientists that climate change is a real and growing threat and that human activity is the primary driver of the problem. Today publisher McGraw-Hill confirmed to the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) that it will remove a deeply problematic lesson that equated unsupported arguments from a special interest-funded political advocacy group, the Heartland Institute, with data-backed material from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a Nobel-winning organization of scientists from around the world.
“We applaud these publishers for responsibly listening to scholars and the tens of thousands of people from across the country who have signed petitions insisting that the textbooks put education and facts ahead of politics,” TFN President Kathy Miller said today. “We hope they will stand firm in their decision and resist pressure from politicians on the state board to lie to students about one of the biggest challenges facing our planet.”
Petitions calling on publishers to correct their textbooks have collected more than 116,000 signatures. The petitions have been sponsored by the Texas Freedom Network, National Center for Science Education (NCSE), Climate Parents, Daily Kos and CREDO Mobilize.
Josh Rosenau, programs and policy director at NCSE, also praised the publishers’ decisions to remove the scientifically inaccurate information from their textbooks.
“Pearson, McGraw-Hill and the other publishers did the right thing by making these changes,” Rosenau said. “They listened to us and the nation’s leading scientific and educational societies, ensuring that students will learn the truth about the greatest challenge they’ll confront as citizens of the 21st century. These publishers should be proud.”
Lisa Hoyos, director of the national organization Climate Parents, noted the importance of telling students the truth about climate change at a time when the science is under political attack across the country.
“There is a dangerous attack on climate science in our country, from Congress to the classroom,” Hoyos said. “We are thrilled that Pearson, McGraw-Hill and there other publishers chose to stand with students, and to remove misinformation about the causes of climate change from their texts. These publishers need to resist any pushback from climate deniers on the Texas State Board of Education and to commit to tell nothing but the truth in the materials they produce for our kids.”
The State Board of Education will hold its second public hearing and take a preliminary vote on the proposed textbooks on Tuesday (November 18). The board is set to take a final vote on Friday. The textbooks will go into classrooms beginning in the 2015-16 school year.
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The Texas Freedom Network (TFN) is a nonpartisan, grassroots organization of community and religious leaders who support public education, religious freedom and individual liberties. The National Center for Science Education (NCSE) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution and climate change. Climate Parents is a national clean energy advocacy organization that also promotes climate science education in schools.
As a member of the Union of Concerned Scientists I’m beyond thrilled that those publishers have decided that Global Climate Change (GCC) is true.
The GREED that is behind the denial of GCC turns my stomach. The Tealibans are concerned ONLY with economic factors and not the danger every person on the face of the earth. The catastrophic effects also negatively affect sea life.
The Tealiban a.k.a. the Republican Part are concerned with economic factors; McConnell is concerned with coal, the filthiest contributor to air pollution. As far as he is concerned, the entire economy revolves around the unlimited burning of coal. “They” said that President Obama would never get an agreement with China–he did! Yes, it will be several years from today, but at least it will be a start.
It makes me wonder how much is enough for people like McConnell and the rest of the Tealiban…how much will be enough? People are dying from breathing and coronary problems. How much is a human life worth? How much is a an entire species of fish is worth? How many honey bees have to die, denying us of food? How much?
Hi Beverly. It’s nice to see you up and kicking—some butt.
I think the next big step is to get all of that Moses nonsense out of the textbooks. Don’t get me wrong. Moses was a nice guy, and I respect him a lot.
However, I have it on good authority from George Washington himself that Moses did not show up at any of the major meetings, Congresses, hearings, and conventions that led to establishment of the United States and its government.
George said he had read about the guy in the Bible but had never seen him in a three-cornered hat or even heard him discussed at the assorted founding meetings. George allows that Moses must have lived several thousand years ago rather than several hundred years ago—and that someone on the Texas SBOE must be terribly confused about the world history timeline and Moses.
George wanted me to ask the members of the Texas SBOE what they’ve been smoking—and then mumbled something about hemp rope? He says the whiskey he makes at Mount Vernon is a much better quality high than whatever they been smoking—but will not make you looney enough to think Moses was a Founding Father.
you sound as smart as those 300 years ago that killed those who tried to explain that the world was round and not flat! We dont have climate
change or global warming (which is a multi billion dollar business –
just ask Al Gore) our earth is going about its natural evolution, every
20000 yrs, warming exits, which killed the dinosaurs, and then in
another 20000 years, we go back to an ice age. Its the pendulum of time,
simple. If paid attention when they at 13 years old and
did science classes, it was explained then to me (like a hundred years
ago!)
Except for the fact that the most current scientific research indicates that the current expression of global warming is not part of one of those natural Earth changes.
Climatologists are well aware of those past historical changes, and one of their key questions of concern has been: “Is this current change one of those historical expressions or is it something different?” The data indicate something different. In other words, the sky really is falling. Of course, I don’t expect you to believe the scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the climate change models they can run on the world’s fastest super computers. Why listen to a room full of scientists with graduate degrees and decades of experience with climate change and weather research when you can get the real truth from a genuine scientific authority like Rush Limbaugh or Bozo the Clown.
You know what lady? I hope with all my heart that you are in your 20s right now because you will gt to see the horrors of man-induced global warming unfold before your very eyes across your lifetime. Maybe you will be the one who does not have enough food to eat because it no longer rains in the key food-growing areas. I will be dead and gone—but you will get to see it and live it—and as your grand daughter dies in your arms—you will know that your ignorant voice assured her death while there was still time to stop the oncoming nightmare. Good luck lady. You’re gonna need it.