Oregon eyes mandate for climate change lessons in schools

Oregon lawmakers are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change lessons for K-12 public school students, further fueling U.S. culture wars in education. Dozens of Oregon high schoolers submitted support of the bill, saying they care about climate change deeply. Some teachers and parents say teaching climate change could help the next generation better confront it, but others want schools to focus on reading, writing and math after test scores plummeted post-pandemic. Schools across the U.S. have found themselves at the center of a politically charged battle over curriculum and how certain social issues should be taught — or whether they should be taught at all. One of the bill's chief sponsors, Democratic Sen. James Manning, said even elementary students have told him climate change is important to them. “We're talking about third and fourth graders having a vision to understand how this world is changing rapidly,” he said at a state Capitol hearing in Salem. Connecticut has the only U.S. state law requiring climate change instruction, and it's possibly the first time such a bill has been introduced in Oregon, according to legislative researchers. Lawmakers in California and New York are considering similar bills. Manning's bill requires every Oregon school district to develop a climate change curriculum within three years, addressing ecological, societal, cultural, political and mental health aspects of climate change. It's unclear how Oregon would enforce the law. Manning told The Associated Press that he is going to scrap an unpopular proposal for financial penalties against districts that don't comply, but didn't say whether another plan was coming. For now, the bill doesn't say how many hours of instruction are needed for the state’s education department to approve a district's curriculum. Most states have learning standards — largely set by state education boards — that include climate change, although their extent varies by state. Twenty states and Washington, D.C., have specifically adopted what are known as the Next Generation Science Standards, which call for middle schoolers to learn about climate science and high schoolers to receive lessons on how human activity affects the climate. This article was provided by The Associated Press.