Climate teaching in K-12 draws fire

First lady led push to add green logo

By: Mary Ann Koruth
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... A green logo with a hand cradling leaves sparked heated argument among state Board of Education members recently as they readopted key revisions to New Jersey's K-12 math and English standards.
..... After the state Department of Education inserted the green symbol - on the recommendation of first lady Tammy Murphy - into the newly revised English and math standards, board members disagreed among themselves and with Angelica Allen-McMillan, acting state education commissioner, over the influence of individuals not appointed by the state on K-12 policy.
..... The symbol, inserted at various places throughout the standards, indicates an opportunity for teachers to discuss climate charge, according to the state. But some board members strongly opposed including recommendations or symbols in academic standards.
..... "We should be providing the state of New Jersey with straight standards," board member Joseph Ricca Jr. said at an October [2023] board meeting, arguing the move would set a bad precedent. "I can't get behind this, not because I don't agree with climate change. I can't get behind it because of the door that it opens."
..... Cross-curricular recommendations could be provided in a separate document, but not within the standards, eh said.
..... There's no going back, Ricca Warned Allen-McMillan. "Once you cross that Rubicon, I'm sorry, commissioner," he said, "you cant say no. So, from my perspective, we must say no."
..... Ricca, who is also the school superintendent of the White Plains Public School District in New York, said he had thought to recommend incorporating civics lessons in other subjects standards, but did not for similar reasons.
...... Ricca and three other board members voted against adopting the standards because of the climate change symbol. The board ultimately approved the standards with the symbol included, 6-4. One board member abstained.
..... Including the climate change symbol in the standards was "a responsible effort" to inform students especially given the urgency of the issue and recent climate events in the state, such as the remnants of Hurricane Ida, said Allen-McMillan, who defended the move - and Murphy's involvement.
..... "We partner with numerous individuals to advance outcomes we believe in," Allen-McMillan told the board. "So we stand with the first lady and the first lady stands with us.
..... "There are other initiatives that we continue to champion with other partners and I am so pleased that we've been able to get to a point in the conversation where the climate change work is available to our educators and it is accessible for use," Allen-McMillian said.

Tammy Murphy running for US Senate seat

..... Tammy Murphy announced her run recently for a U.S. Senate seat, after a federal indictment accused Bob Menendez, the incumbent Democratic senator from New Jersey, of bribery and other s, including Governor Phil Murphy, have called for his resignation.
..... During a recent episode of call-in show "Ask governor Murphy" on MPR, Murphy said he and his wife found calls from supporters "humbling," Tammy Murphy has won several key endorsements, but also criticism from progressive Democratic groups that singed an open letter denouncing nepotism in the U.S. Senate race.
..... The all-volunteer, governor-appointed state Board of Education is tasked with approving regulations and polices created by the Department of Education and acts as an independent check and balance to policymaking on schools.
..... Department of Education representatives had communicated to board members during closed committee meetings in the summer [2023] that the initiative to include examples of climate change in the math and English standards came from the governor's office and the first lady, board member Andrew Mulvihill said in an interview.
..... Mulvihill, like Ricca, disagreed with including climate change examples or symbols in the standards.
..... "There was a lot of discussion in the policy committee that the climate change inclusion was driven by the governor's wife, which she is passionate about. I think that's wonderful. In fact, I love her involvement in women's soccer," Mulvihill told the board.
..... "I just don't know though that an unelected person's passions should be something that we're sticking into our math or English standards."
..... "Tammy Murphy has advocated for infant and maternal care, and the environment, during her husband's two terms as governor.
..... Board member Sylvia Sylvia-Cioffi voted in favor of adopting the standards. Though she saw both sides of the argument, the symbol served to open a conversation without forcing anything, she said.
..... Murphy's input was the same to me as every other stakeholder," Sylvia-Cioffi said.
..... "I don't care about the [political] relationship, I don't care about that. We've making recommendations about opportunities for instructors to put something about climate change in that area."

First-in-nation initiative to teach climate change

..... State documents describe including the climate change symbol at different points in the standards as an opportunity for educators to promote its first-in-nation initiative to teach climate change in K-12 curricula.
..... The symbol, according to the state's standards document, shows teachers were they can "integrate specific examples of climate change education" in "age-appropriate" ways. Teachers can choose - but are not required - to incorporate climate change examples in math and English.
..... New Jersey is the first state to require schools to incorporate the theme of climate change into all subjects starting in September 2022. Tammy Murphy has championed K-12 climate change initiatives, and announced the adoption of K-12 climate change standards in 2020.
..... The state has also launched an Online hub of lesson ideas for teachers called the New Jersey Climate Change Initiative. The implementation of climate change standards has been enabled by 410 million in state funding for climate change education grants and the creation of the Office on Climate change Education.

Invited to participate in phone calls with Tammy Murphy

..... An early draft of the standard included actual examples of climate change material. After push-back form state board members in meetings that were closed to the public, the Department of Education removed 60 examples of climate change lessons from the math and English standards, Assistant commissioner of the Department of Education Jorden Schiff told the board.
..... Instead, the state placed the climate change symbol in sections of the document. "A number of board members including myself objected to including climate change in the math and English standards" during those early meetings, Mulvihill told NorthJersey.com . Including them across curricula was a "panic response," he said, and was less important than addressing drops in reading and math scores after the COVID-19 pandemic.
..... The Department of Education invited board members to participate inphone conversations to discuss the standards with Tammy Murphy in an August [2023] email, Mulvihill said.
..... Mulvihill said he expressed his disagreement over climate change inclusion in his phone conversation with her.
..... Three comments public hearings and public comments submitted via a dedicated email account started in April and ended in June, [2023] as part of the state's process to adopt revisions to K-12 policies. The majority of the comments were concerning climate change inclusion in the standards, Schiff said at the meeting.
..... Most were in support, including several comments from students. Some opponents of recommending climate change examples in the standards called it "indoctrination." Others said that math and science teachers were not trained to discuss climate change in their classrooms.

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