A new survey from Florida Atlantic University shows a high degree of support for climate change education in the state's public schools.
Presented with the proposition "Florida schools should teach the causes, consequences, and solutions to climate change in our K-12 classrooms," 72.1 percent of respondents strongly supported (36.9 percent) or supported (35.2 percent) it, with 18.7 percent neither supporting nor opposing it, and 9.2 percent opposing (5.3 percent) or strongly opposing (3.9 percent) it.
The latest wave of the Florida Climate Resilience Survey survey was conducted from September 1 to September 18, 2021, with an on-line panel of 1400 Floridians age 18 and older. "Responses for the entire sample were weighted to adjust for age, race, income, education and gender according to the 2019 American Community Survey from the U.S. Bureau of the Census." The margin of error for the whole sample was +/- 2.62 percent.
The 72.1 percent level of support for climate change education was the highest recorded in the the three-year history of the survey; it is higher than the level assessed by the Saint Leo University Polling Institute in 2020 (as NCSE previously reported), 67.8 percent, but lower than the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication's estimate in 2020, 78 percent.
Florida's science standards received a D for their treatment of climate change in the "Making the Grade?" report from NCSE and the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund.
