ORE. EYES MANDATE FOR CLIMATE CHANGE EDUCATION

Oregon lawmakers are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change lessons for K-12 public school students, further fueling U.S. culture wars in education.

Dozens of Oregon high schoolers submitted support of the bill, saying they care about climate change deeply. Some teachers and parents say teaching climate change could help the next generation better confront it, but others want schools to focus on reading, writing and math after test scores plummeted post-pandemic.

Schools across the U.S. have found themselves at the center of a politically charged battle over curriculum and how matters such as gender, sex education and race should be taught — or whether they should be taught at all.

One of the bill’s chief sponsors, Democratic Sen. James Manning, said even elementary students have told him climate change is important to them.

“We’re talking about third- and fourth-graders having a vision to understand how this world is changing rapidly,” he said at a state Capitol hearing Thursday in Salem.

Connecticut has the only U.S. state law requiring climate change instruction. Lawmakers in California and New York are considering similar bills.

Manning’s bill would require every Oregon school district to develop curriculum within three years, addressing ecological, societal, cultural, political and mental health aspects of climate change. The bill doesn’t say how many hours of instruction are needed for the state’s education department to approve a district’s curriculum, and it’s unclear how Oregon would enforce the law.