New Mexico Science Standards Evolve From Global Warming

In the rare cases when schools deviate from establishment mores, they can expect a very partisan backlash.

“A proposed overhaul of New Mexico’s state science standards for public schools came under intense criticism Monday at a packed public hearing in the state capital for omitting or deleting references to global warming, evolution and the age of the Earth,” Morgan Lee reported on the AP yesterday. “Comments at the hearing overwhelmingly sided against state revisions to a set of standards developed by a consortium of states and the National Academy of Sciences.”

“Of the 55 initial speakers, none backed the standards. Public school teachers, state university faculty, Democratic Party officials and the science chairman for a school catering to local Native American students urged the Public Education Department, led by a recent appointee of Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, to throw out its proposed changes and adopt unedited standards.”