The pressure on the Texas board of education to require the correction of errors in the coverage of climate change in social studies textbooks presently under consideration continues. In a press conference on November 12, 2014, NCSE, the Texas Freedom Network, and Climate Parents charged that textbooks published by McGraw-Hill and Pearson are still problematic, as the Austin Chronicle (November 12, 2014) reports.
Observing that science textbooks manage to represent the scientific consensus correctly, NCSE's Josh Rosenau described the social studies textbooks as "irresponsible," adding that it's "hard to understand how the social studies books went so far [a]field." Lisa Hoyos of Climate Parents agreed, saying, "Parents are alarmed and angry that [publishers] would knowingly expose kids to false information in their social studies textbooks."
Released at the same press conference was a letter (PDF) addressed to McGraw-Hill and Pearson urging the publishers to "correct all factual errors regarding climate change in draft textbooks for K-12 students in Texas." Signing the letter, besides NCSE, TFN, and Climate Parents, were the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Alliance for Climate Education, Bill Nye, Sojourners, and the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Previously, a number of scientific societies and environmental organizations separately urged (PDF) the state board of education to require the publishers to fix these errors: the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, the Ecological Society of America, and the National Resources Defense Council.
The state board of education is scheduled to hold a final public hearing on the textbooks on November 18, with a vote on the textbooks expected to follow on November 21. The TFN's president Kathy Miller told the Austin Chronicle, "Parents must insist that students get textbooks based on the recommendations of scholars and experts rather than on the demands of politicians who pressure publishers into distorting research and facts."