Portland school board is standing up to protect our children’s access to the truth about climate change. The GOP has been behind consorted attempts to deny children access to a fact-based climate education. In some cases, educators are all that stand between our kids and Republican lies.
Last winter Idaho Republicans passed legislation that censors all reference to climate. However, teachers like Boise School District’s science curriculum director Chris Taylor vow to keep teaching the facts. “We will continue to teach climate change and investigate human impacts on biodiversity even though they are not mentioned in the standards,” Taylor said.
Last spring a school board in Portland banned all classroom materials that cast doubt on climate change. Conservatives who deny the veracity of the science of climate change dismiss it as a theory. However, the unanimous decision by the Portland Public Schools Board requires class materials to present climate change as a fact not a theory. Human activity must also be presented as having a causal role. This applies to all materials purchased by the board.
Conservatives are picking up on the story and trying to suggest that this is some form of censorship or book banning. What they fail to realize is that censoring lies is called telling the truth and this is just what our children deserve.
Republicans are complicit in the sewing of deceit. They have actively sought to prevent our children from having access to the facts. The reason why Republicans are doing this is not only because they are misinformed. They are paid handsomly to be ignorant.
The fossil fuel industry is behind Republican climate subterfuge. Facilitated by the Citizens United ruling the fossil fuel industry pours vast sums of money into Republican campaigns. They use front groups like the Heartland Institute to disseminate pseudo-science designed to prevent kids from getting the facts.
However, people are becoming increasingly aware of the fossil fuel industry’s malfeasance. In testimony to the Portland board, former teacher Bill Bigelow, told district officials, “we don’t want kids in Portland learning material courtesy of the fossil fuel industry.”
Portland Public Schools is also a leader in a number of other ways. Following the devastating tropical storms in Houston and Miami, Portland Public Schools is leading a community-wide effort to help students, families, and educators to raise money and supplies for recent storm victims.
Portland Public School Board is also a leader in race relations. Long before race relations in the US descended to their current low Portland School Board launched a Critical Race Theory coarse. In 2014 Portland Public Schools teachers participated in a training session for a controversial curriculum. Some of the topics covered in this course include “Racial Identity Models,” “The Dominant White Culture,” and “Institutionalized Racism” in the United States.
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