Two of the three amendments concerning climate change education under consideration are out of commission as the United States Senate continues to discuss a bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
A proposed amendment (SA 2176) to establish the Climate Change Education Act, which would have instituted a competitive grant program aimed in part at developing and improving educational material and teacher training on the topic of climate change, was rejected on a 44-53 vote on July 15, 2015.
The amendment was proposed by Edward Markey (D-Massachussetts), who was quoted by the Washington Post (July 15, 2015) as saying, "The children of our country deserve the best scientific education they can get on this topic ... They are the future leaders of this country and the world. They must be equipped."
Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), however, argued against the federal government's involvement in curriculum and instruction, warning, "Just imagine what the curriculum on climate change would be if we shifted from President Obama to President Cruz and then back to President Sanders and then to President Trump."
Meanwhile, a proposed amendment (SA 2144) that would have directed the administrators of EPA and NOAA to provide state and local educational agencies with "balanced, objective resources on climate theory," proposed by Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi), was withdrawn without a vote on July 15, 2015.
Wicker was the sole dissenter to a resolution "that climate change is real and not a hoax" that was before the Senate in 2015, as National Public Radio (January 23, 2015) reported, and among dozens of senators that dissented from a similar amendment that acknowledged human influence on climate change.
Still under consideration is a resolution (SA 2175) that refers to the scientific evidence for human-induced climate change as "overwhelming and undeniable" and holds that "instruction in climate science is important for all students and should not be prohibited by any unit of State or local government."
"Passage of SA 2175 would put the Senate on record as firmly supporting climate change education," NCSE's executive director Ann Reid commented. "I urge you to get in touch with your senators and express your support for the resolution."