Photo by Kimberly Farmer on Unsplash.
A story from WUSF and the Hechinger Report (August 20, 2026) examines Florida's censorship of climate change from its textbooks in detail — and NCSE is repeatedly cited.
In 2024, the Florida department of education demanded the removal of references to climate change from textbooks under consideration for statewide adoption, as NCSE previously reported. The WUSF/Hechinger Report story quotes NCSE Deputy Director Glenn Branch as summarizing, "These are not changes that were required to bring the textbooks in line with the state science standards." He added, "Demanding that the treatment of climate change be weakened in these textbooks is very unusual."
Representatives of textbook publishers told WUSF/Hechinger Report that the changes were consistent with the scientific integrity of the discussion of climate. The author of a marine science textbook was not so sanguine, charging, "There's no scientific or pedagogic or aesthetic improvement." Kenneth R. Miller, coauthor of a popular high school biology textbook (and chair of NCSE's board of directors) observed that the department's demands were very specific: "there was unique attention being paid to climate change."
Commenting on correspondence between the department and the textbook publishers obtained through a public records act, NCSE's Branch observed that the department's motive was unclear. "One hypothesis might be that the revisions were made to defend the fossil fuel industry," he suggested, while acknowledging that "[i]t could be something more benign," if the department was thinking, 'Well, if we leave these passages in, it’s going to cause problems for teachers in their local communities.'"
Florida's teachers are already experiencing problems — but from politicians and administrators who discourage the teaching of climate change. "The educators described a 'culture of caution,' where they aren’t barred from mentioning climate change in the classroom outright, but rather told by their superiors to refrain from discussing any topics deemed 'controversial' for their own benefit." Several of the teachers interviewed for the story "asked to remain anonymous out of fear of being punished or fired for speaking out on the topic."
Meanwhile, the department of education is quietly overseeing a revision of Florida's state science standards. The current standards, adopted in 2008, are among the oldest in the country, and they received a grade of D in the 2020 study of the treatment of climate change in state science standards conducted by NCSE and the Texas Freedom Network Education Fund. While the department would not comment, a revised set of standards was reportedly submitted in the summer of 2026 and is now under review.
"Whether the recommended standards include education about the climate crisis — and if so, whether that content will survive the department’s editing process — remains a mystery," the story comments. In the meantime, "teachers and students already feel the impact of the state's attack on climate education." Yet, as a high school senior in Tampa Bay commented, "We have to learn about [climate change] and actually be educated and know what the problem is because if we don't know the problem, then we won't be able to fix it."
WUSF Public Media's audio version of the story, featuring Miller and Branch, is available online on its website; click the "Listen" button.
