New Mexico’s Public Education Department has moved to adopt the Next Generation Science Standards, which is a curriculum developed by a consortium of 26 states and by the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Research Council. However, New Mexico’s proposed standards contain very specific ommissions of crucial facts pertaining to evolution, rising global temperatures and the age of Earth.
The Albuquerque Journal reports:
Among those changes, the proposal would eliminate a reference to Earth’s “4.6 billion year history” and replaced it with “geologic history” in the middle-school curriculum. It also omits a reference to a “rise in global temperatures” and replaces it with “fluctuations” in temperature.
…
Another omits the word “evolution” and replaces it with the phrase “biological diversity.”
Young people deserve an education that empowers them with the information they need to be successful and address the challenges of the 21st century. Unfortunately, New Mexico appears on its way toward implementing a curriculum centered on accommodating religious and political agendas instead of what’s best for its students.
Read more about the proposed changes to New Mexico’s science standards here.
