By Catrina Petersen | The Center Square
Beginning with the 2025-2026 school year, every public high school shall require a unit of instruction addressing climate change in either a required science class or a required social studies class.
House Bill 4895 gives the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE) the directive to create professional development resources for educators to best teach climate change coursework.
State Rep. Janet Yang Rohr, D-Naperville, said she is working to ensure young people understand the science behind climate change and the effects it will have.
“ISBE recognized that there is a real hole and need for professional development to help train our educators on how to teach about climate change. This bill allows ISBE to create those professional materials subject to appropriation,” said Yang Rohr.
State Rep. Dan Ugaste, R-Geneva, said he thinks the legislature is starting to impose too much of what they believe the educators should be teaching Illinois children.
“Rather than the educators, the people we’re told are the professionals, decide what to teach the kids, allowing it to be up to the school boards to decide what their kids need to succeed, allowing educators to educate…we instead are interjecting a political ideology on our schools and children and asking that to be taught. I’d rather them reach their levels in math and reading and then we start worrying about things like this,” said Ugaste.
Not a single child tested proficient in math in 67 Illinois schools. For reading, it’s 32 schools, according to a Wirepoints report.
Read more here.
Abolish the ISBE.