Texas board rejects many science textbooks over climate change messaging
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A Republican-controlled Texas State Board of Education on Friday rejected seven of 12 proposed science textbooks for eighth graders that for the first time will require them to include information on climate change.
The 15-member board largely rejected the books either because they included policy solutions for climate change or because they were produced by a company that has an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) policy. Some textbooks were also rejected because SBOE reviewers gave the books lower scores on how well they adhered to the state’s curriculum standards.
The board voted Friday to allow five textbooks for eighth grade science to be included on the list, published by Savvas Learning Company, McGraw-Hill School Division, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Depository, Accelerate Learning and Summit K-12.
San Antonio Democrat board member Marisa Perez-Diaz said she was disappointed by Friday’s decision to reject so many textbooks, some that included Spanish texts.
“My fear is that we will render ourselves irrelevant moving forward when it comes to what publishers want to work with us and will help us get proper materials in front of our young people, and for me that's heartbreaking,” Perez-Diaz said during Friday’s meeting. “I'm very disappointed that so many things were voted down based on assertions or thoughts about how things are written or thematics.”