"The West Virginia Board of Education voted Wednesday to withdraw changes proposed to the state's science education standards," reports the Charleston Gazette (January 14, 2015). Following a recommendation from the state department of education, the board agreed to revert to the original version of the sections addressing climate science. After a public comment period, the board is expected have a final vote in March 2015.
As NCSE previously reported, before the Next Generation Science Standards were offered for public comment in the state, Wade Linger, a member of the state board of education, asked for changes to downplay the scientific consensus on climate change. The compromised standards were then adopted in December 2014. Linger later told the Charleston Gazette (December 28, 2014), "We're on this global warming binge going on here."
Condemnation of the changes came from NCSE — whose Mark McCaffrey contributed a column to the Charleston Gazette (January 4, 2015) charging that "the board's revisions to the standards undermine the quality of West Virginia's public education system" — as well as from the West Virginia Science Teachers Association, faculty at West Virginia University, Citizens Climate Lobby, Climate Parents, and the National Science Teachers Association.