Governor Nixes Climate Change Legislation
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed a bill that would have required discussions of climate change to be added to the state's textbooks and curriculum, calling the measure an "overly prescriptive" approach.
The Republican governor is no skeptic when it comes to global warming. He speaks often of the dangers of climate change on his state and the country, and he has won praise from environmental advocates for leading a high-profile fight to attempt to get the federal government to allow California to set its own, more stringent auto-emissions standards.
The climate-change curriculum legislation was sponsored by Sen. Joe Simitian, a Democrat from Palo Alto. In his veto statement, Schwarzenegger said he supports education measures that increase students' understanding of climate change, but opposed making those changes through state-mandated legislation, according to the San Jose Mercury-News.
Simitian has argued that his measure, SB 908, would give state policymakers the flexibility to decide how this topic will be taught, and at which grades. I wrote about his measure earlier this year.
