House Education committee hears hours of testimony on bill to add climate education to state standards

Representative Lisa Bridal, the bill sponsor, told the House Education Committee she was “in strong support of House Bill 3,365,” describing it as a change that would add climate science education goals and objectives to the Oregon Department of Education’s regular updates of academic content standards.

The bill would authorize—and not mandate—integration of “climate and sustainability standards as appropriate for each grade level and subject area” through the existing standards review process run by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE). Bridal told the committee that the integration would follow the state’s normal content-standard adoption cycle, which reviews each subject on a seven-year rotation.

Why it matters: Proponents said students already experience climate impacts in Oregon—wildfires, drought,…