When the Texas state board of education held a hearing on September 16, 2014, on social studies textbooks submitted for state adoption, the treatment of climate science was among the topics. Charles Jackson, a research scientist at the University of Texas's Institute for Geophysics, criticized "inaccurate textbook coverage casting doubt on the overwhelming scientific consensus that climate change is a serious and growing threat," according to the Texas Freedom Network's live-blog of the hearing (September 16, 2014).
In a joint press release issued the day before the hearing, NCSE and the Texas Freedom Network announced that "an examination of how proposed social studies textbooks for Texas public schools address climate change reveals distortions and bias that misrepresent the broad scientific consensus on the phenomenon." A number of errors about climate science were present, as well as a quotation from a notorious climate change denial organization presented in rebuttal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The findings received wide coverage in the state and national press, including the National Journal and Ars Technica (both on September 15, 2014) and the Houston Press, Texas Public Radio, the Guardian, Newsweek, and Mother Jones (all on September 16, 2014). NCSE's Josh Rosenau told Mother Jones, "In this day, social studies education ought to include an in-depth discussion of climate change ... But if you include the topic, it becomes a flash point with conservatives on the board of education."
The Texas state board of education is expected to make a final decision on the social studies textbooks in November 2014, and the materials will be used in Texas's public schools beginning in the 2015-2016 school year. Concerned Texans are urged to add their names to a joint petition from NCSE and the Texas Freedom Network which will be delivered to the Texas state board of education and to the publishers of the textbooks in question, demanding that the errors about climate science be removed and corrected.