Earlier in the year, the Texas Board of Education altered internal guidance and lowered standards for lessons on climate science. In turn, this prompted a renewed effort from both advocate groups and academics to ensure science courses accurately cover the topic. As science texts have been instructed to emphasize “positive aspects of fossil fuels,” poor environmental practices are increasingly normalized during what scientists confirm as a climate crisis.
Texas’ industrial history laid the economic foundation for the development of cities across the state. Likewise, the environmental repercussions have been vast. While schools potentially downplay negative effects from the use of fossil fuels, they also downplay the seriousness of systemic issues facing the most marginalized communities.
Dallas Weekly has previously covered Dallas’ systemic issues of poor air quality from high factory production and the subsequent environmental damage. We’ve also covered common health issues in the area that corresponded with several pollutants in the air produced by both the Procter & Gamble factory, formerly at the WH Cotton Building, and the Ford factory, formerly at the Adam Hats building.
As these buildings have lived on as landmarks and repurposed spaces for both public and private entities, Dallas’ industrial background is in constant recall when discussing the city’s history. Similarly, other areas of Texas such as Galveston and Houston have deep connections to both the lumber and oil industries that gave rise to environmental issues as well as economic prosperity.
Within the school board’s current guidelines, key aspects of Texas infrastructure are subject to misrepresentation. As climate change plays a massive threat to Texas specifically, taking measures to alleviate environmental instability are crucial. We are currently experiencing an aggressive heatwave that has in-turn brought many cities our hottest summer on record. As temperatures in the state have steadily risen by 0.5-1F over the past century, Texas is projected to get significantly hotter over the next seven decades.
The climate continues to warm in Texas as heavier rainfall and hurricane winds are anticipated in coming years. Damage to infrastructure caused by storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and inland flooding pose a growing threat to residents. In the last 20 years, Hurricanes like Hanna, Harvey, and Ike have collectively caused almost 200 deaths and $150 billion in damages.
As Texas did not require climate science to be taught before the year 2020, the state received an F from the National Center for Science Education for dismal standards on the subject. While the state subsequently allowed curriculums to feature materials and literature addressing climate change, the new changes instituted by the school board could reverse some elements of the previous policy.
While Dallas Independent School District includes lessons explaining key factors causing climate change, Texan education standards often require texts to provide doubtful secondary statements that are borderline contradictory. Katie Worth, author of Miseducation: How Climate Change is Taught in America, explains that as guidance on education in the country is left to states, geographical placement has the potential to drastically alter the course of a student’s education.
As textbooks with foggy perspectives on climate change are favored, the burden of responsibility is placed on educators to close the gaps. Poverty in large cities naturally leads to less experienced or well-resourced teachers in poorer districts.
The Texas Education Agency reports that 10% of teachers in the state have left the profession each year in the last decade. As the retention rate weakens, a student’s performance is negatively impacted. This issue is worsened when teachers leave mid-year, leaving substitutes less equipped to prepare adequate lesson plans.
According to national studies, 86% of teachers and 84% of parents support climate change education in schools. While educators and families each may have the desire for more straightforward lesson plans explaining climate change, states like Texas have taken an increasingly tenacious stance in advocating for climate change denial. Textbook publishers are more than willing to accommodate lawmakers in the interest of maintaining business. As Texas and Florida boast massive populations of around 30 and 22 million respectively, textbook giants like McGraw Hill would see heavy losses in sales if red states chose alternative options.
As education guidelines become looser and subject to greater interpretation on subjects like climate science, the quality of a student’s education takes a downslide. Education, in this respect, is not informing a growing individual’s understanding of their environment, let alone their government’s role in its degradation.
Texas is both subject to unstable weather due to climate change while also outpacing California to produce 193 metric tons of carbon dioxide from transportation alone. Holding immense responsibility in the future of our environment, conservative lawmakers attempt to rob the next generation of Texans of the chance to break toxic patterns in service to a better world.
