Did you know that most Texans believe global warming is real? The Yale Program on Climate Change Communication produced a report, called Climate Change in the Texan Mind in 2013. The first two bullet points from the executive summary are below:
- Most Texans (70%) believe global warming is happening. Relatively few (14%) believe it is not.
- Fewer than half (44%) believe that if global warming is happening, it is caused mostly by human activities. Three in ten Texans (31%) believe it is caused mostly by natural changes in the environment.
The second bullet point troubles me. The adult population in Texas cannot decide if humans are causing our recent climate change or if it is Mother Nature running her course. This is where good science standards can help. If we could increase the number of references of ‘climate change’ in the science standards among all the science courses, not just Earth and Space Science, then we’d reach many students before 12th grade---a time when students develop senioritis and lose interest in school. 
The most important state-wide elected office is not the governor and not the lieutenant-governor -- it is the State Board of Education (SBOE).
Members of the SBOE are elected by the public; one member is appointed by the governor to serve as chair for a short period of time. Currently, there are 15 SBOE members serving 15 districts which you can find on this map: http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/pdf/sboe/PlanE120_Map5000_Statewide_11x17.pdf.
The SBOE has several duties and responsibilities, and in my opinion, the top three are
1) setting curriculum standards, especially science and social studies,
2) adopting instructional materials, especially textbooks, and
3) allocating public money to local school districts
There are about five million children in Texas who attend public schools. What are those five million children learning? Well, theoretically they are learning a lot! The TEKS, Texas Essential Knowledge Standards, is very prescriptive; it provides an extremely long list of ‘what to know’ and ‘how to do’ many skills in science classes. If students master all the Student Expectations in TEKS in four years of high school, then they are really well-informed.
I’m not advocating for the TEKS ‘as is’. In fact, the TEKS in science will be stream lined in the near future, and that in my opinion, is for the better. I’m pointing out that SBOE approves of volumes of stuff kids are supposed to learn in public school, especially science. In the long list of Student Expectations, you will find controversial topics, like evolution and climate change…yes, those topics are included in the TEKS. Hopefully, neither evolution nor climate change will be streamlined out of the TEKS. Evolution, the central unifying concept of Biology, has at least seven references between Biology and Earth and Space Science standards. Climate Change (currently the greatest threat to humanity on the planet) only has three references, and they are tucked into the Earth and Space Science standards. The latter course is recommended for 12th graders.
These 12th graders are the future voters of Texas; they are the future leaders in education, business, and policy. It makes sense to teach these young people what to expect and support their ingenuity to acclimate to a new climate---one that will affect many aspects of their lives from water, energy, food resources to mobility and access to a ‘good life’ in the middle class of America.
And we cannot have good science standards unless we have good State Board of Education members who teach facts in science and not ‘both sides’ because that is a fallacy, called a false equivalency, made time and time again by our leaders who either had bad science teachers or didn’t listen in class! There is only one side in science---the scientific explanation and its explanation is free from the influence of culture and ideology.
The school children of Texas deserve leaders who value critical thinking, leaders who are capable of empathizing with communities who bear the brunt of climate disruption, leaders who see into the future and think about the future well-being of Texans environmentally, socially, and economically. That is why the most important state-wide elected office is the State Board of Education. I strongly encourage you to pay attention to the tone of the board’s members as they review and update the TEKS. Their decisions affect which textbooks are purchased. These books are literally titled The Texas Edition as if children are buying the latest truck. Makes me wonder how The Texas Edition compares to The California Edition or The New York Edition, if the latter even exist!
References:
http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-in-the-texan-mind/
http://tea.texas.gov/About_TEA/Leadership/State_Board_of_Education/Board_Members/SBOE_Members/
http://www.tlc.state.tx.us/redist/pdf/sboe/PlanE120_Map5000_Statewide_11x17.pdf