Global warming education bill didn’t deserve to be iced
Share this pageGov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is right in principle: Legislators shouldn’t dictate what is or isn’t taught in public schools. They should leave that up to advisory committees reporting to the state Board of Education, which has the final say-so.
But in vetoing SB 908, the governor put principle ahead of the facts. He made a political statement and ignored the details of the bill.
SB 908 would have required including instruction on global warming in K-12. For better or worse — probably for the better, in this case — the Legislature already had inserted itself in the science curriculum. In 2003, it passed AB 1548, sponsored by then Assemblywoman Fran Pavley of Agora Hills. It created the Office of Education and Environment to create a model curriculum for environmental education and listed seven areas that should be covered, including energy conservation, water conservation, air resources and toxic materials. In sponsoring SB 908, Sen. Joe Simitian of Palo Alto reasoned that if the state by law mandated teaching about integrated pest management, it certainly should also include global warming. Sero he added it as the eighth topic to the list.
Full story on San Jose Mercury News website