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SALT LAKE CITY -- A conservative think tank is calling out the Utah State Office of Education and school districts, accusing them of using books and supplemental materials that push an environmentalist agenda.
The Sutherland Institute is asking the state and districts to remove the materials from their lists.
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Piccolo points to a number of examples.
"A couple of the authors of environmental science textbooks claim that global warming will be one of the greatest challenges the human race faces in the 21st century," Piccolo pointed out. "A lot of the textbooks talk about the need to limit population growth, saying the earth's resources are not enough."
The Sutherland Institute is pushing for balance.
"We want students to learn about the facts, and if they're going to talk about one side of the political spectrum, we definitely want them to talk about the other," Piccolo said. "If they learn politicized, unscientific theory in school, that's a problem because they're going to assume that it's fact, not knowing there might be an alternative."
State Office of Education spokesman Mark Peterson says the group's issues will be reviewed the next time core curriculum is periodically revised in that area.
Still, he says the state sees merit in what is being taught.
"The point of science curriculum is that students understand scientific thinking today," Peterson said. "If students don't understand the current state of science, they're not going to be on the same level of their peers across the country and around the globe."
E-mail: aadams@ksl.com
