According to the National Center for Science Education, Idaho’s state science education standards are going to be revised again. They report this from Idaho Education News. As with other educational curricula updates noted by the NCSE, there has been a focus on a singular topic of the time in climate change.
There are counter moves to the proper education of the public. Some include the Intelligent Design movement. Others involve constructions including the Ark Encounter of young-earth creationists found in the likes of Ken Ham and others.
The Idaho House of Representatives between 2016 and 2018 had some legislators who “attempted to block the adoption” of updates to the science standards, based on the treatment of climate change. They failed.
In 2020, there were further efforts to try this, as reported by the NCSE. With the failure, yet again, there was another call for a revision to the standards in which there would be a “balance in standards” that became “politicized” when discussing “positive and negative aspects” of the various energy sources. This is based on documentation from Idaho Education News.
A legislator of the revision committee, Dorothy Moon (R-District 8), opposed the science standards because these placed the businesses of Idaho in a negative light. The standards came from a recognition and concern over anthropogenic climate change.
The NCSE concluded, “A revised version of the standards is expected to be evaluated by the state board of education in October 2021. If the board votes to adopt the new standards, they will still be submitted to the legislature for its approval in 2022.”
With files from the National Center for Science Education.
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash