Approval of new science textbooks for Texas students could spark climate change debate

The approval of new science textbooks for Texas schoolchildren this week could lead to debate about climate change education in classrooms after the state railroad commissioner urged elected education officials to teach the importance of fossil fuels.

The letter from Commissioner Wayne Christian asks State Board of Education Chairman Keven Ellis to pick pro-fossil fuel textbooks and avoid materials that “promote a radical environmentalist agenda.”

However, several education and science groups say that any dilution of the proposed climate change curriculum would come at the detriment of Texas students.

The education board, which oversees state education standards, is scheduled this week to approve a list of third-party science textbooks that includes materials from companies such as McGraw-Hill School Division and Accelerated Learning Inc., according to board documents.

The new science textbook adoption comes as part of a multiyear effort to revamp the state’s science curriculum.

The board adopted the current curriculum standards in 2020 and opened a call for publishers to write new textbooks.

But ahead of a final vote this week, Christian issued a letter to Ellis asking the board to “choose books that promote the importance of fossil fuels for energy production and reject books that promote a ‘green energy’ and net zero agenda.”

The Texas Railroad Commission, despite its name, regulates the oil and natural gas industry, coal and uranium surface mining, and other similar production.

Christian noted that oil and gas companies paid $24.7 billion in state and local taxes in 2022, but that 66% of teenagers think the industry is “more harmful than good.”

Neither Ellis nor Christian’s office returned a request for comment.

The comments in Christian's letter were concerning to the Texas Freedom Network, a nonprofit promoting religious freedom and public schools.

“We are fearful that state board members who are influenced by the oil and gas industry or are more right leaning will essentially ask for amendments from publishers that really take out all of the things about these textbooks that make them meet our standards,” network spokeswoman Emily Witt said.

During an Aug. 29 board meeting, Member Will Hickman, who represents an area north of Houston and is an in-house counsel in the oil industry, asked whether the books should consider the benefits of burning carbon.

“Is there a benefit to turning the lights on, turning on air conditioning?” he asked.

In an August report, the freedom network and the National Center for Science Education determined that all but two publishers, which have since withdrawn from consideration, adequately covered climate change for eighth graders.

In a 2020 study, however, the two groups gave Texas an “F” grade for climate change education.

“The updated standards should do a better job, but we haven’t been able to see them implemented in classrooms yet,” Witt said. “Right now, kids are working off of standards that are 10 years old.”

Traditionally, Texas has been an important state for book sellers, said Glenn Branch, deputy director of the center for science education.

Because the state is so large, textbook publishers often write their books for Texas standards and then sell similar versions of those books to smaller states. However, that stature is changing somewhat, Branch said.

“These days, 20 states plus the District of Columbia use the same set of science standards called the Next Generation of Science Standards,” Branch said. Another 25 states use standards based on similar guidance, he said.

“The effect on the rest of the country is going to be less than it used to be even though it’s still true that what happens in Texas doesn’t stay in Texas,” Branch said.

Texas has fallen behind other states in teaching about climate change, said Rebecca Bell-Metereau, who represents Central Texas on the education board. Anything that waters down the effects of fossil fuels on the climate is contrary to the science, she said.

“It’s factually correct that that has made a lot of money for a lot of people,” Bell-Metereau said. “It's been an economic boom for Texas, but it's also now, at this point in our history, killing our planet, killing life on our planet. It's just that simple.”

Also last week, the conservative group Texas Values took issue with the textbooks’ teaching of evolution, noting that the group rejects "the theory that the ancestor for humankind is 'the monkey.’ ”

Evolution's inclusion in science textbooks sparked significant debates at the state board in 2011.

The board will discuss the books Tuesday and is scheduled to take a final vote Friday.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Texas science textbook adoption could spark climate change debate