The School Board that sets the state of West Virginia's teaching standards for all public schools in the state has altered the science curriculum to give climate denialism an equal standing with the peer reviewed scientific consensus on Global Warming as it makes changes to teach the topic to all state students for the first time.
Climate change learning standards for W.Va. students altered
By Ryan Quinn
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — At the request of a West Virginia Board of Education member who said he doesn’t believe human-influenced climate change is a “foregone conclusion,” new state science standards on the topic were altered before the state school board adopted them.
School officials said the changes are meant to encourage more student debate on the idea that humans’ greenhouse gas emissions are causing a global rise in temperatures — a theory that an overwhelming majority of scientists accepts.
Earlier this month, the state school board adopted the new education requirements, based on the national Next Generation Science Standards blueprint, with the plan to instruct teachers how to teach them by the 2016-17 school year.
Robin Sizemore, science coordinator for the state Office of Secondary Learning, said the new science standards will be the first time students will be required to learn about the evidence for human-driven climate change — the current standards only cover them in elective courses.
But state school board member Wade Linger asked that several changes be made to the drafted standards before they were put out for a monthlong public comment period.
Linger suggested adding the words “and fall” after “rise” to the sixth-grade science standard. The change was adopted.
According to Linger, state Department of Education staff made other changes in response to his concerns before the school board adopted the standards.
Original ninth grade science requirement: “Analyze geoscience data and the results from global climate models to make an evidence-based forecast of the current rate of global or regional climate change and associated future impacts to Earth systems.”
Adopted version: “Analyze geoscience data and the predictions made by computer climate models to assess their creditability [sic] for predicting future impacts on the Earth System.”
Original high school elective Environmental Science requirement: “Debate climate changes as it [sic] relates to greenhouse gases, human changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, and relevant laws and treaties.”
Adopted version: “Debate climate changes as it relates to natural forces such as Milankovitch cycles, greenhouse gases, human changes in atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, and relevant laws and treaties.”
“We’re on this global warming binge going on here,” Linger said. “... We need to look at all the theories about it rather than just the human changes in greenhouse gases.”
This is disturbing development even in a state practically run by Big Coal for generations that's economy is largely dependent on coal mining.
The West Virginia's School Board could also give equal weight to teaching that the Earth could be flat, or that the Sun could revolve around the Earth, just to get both sides out there before students too.