Should Tax Dollars Pay to Teach Kids About Global Warming in the Classroom?

Fox and Friends
February 23, 2008

David Asman: A California state lawmaker is proposing teaching global warming in California schools. But should taxpayer's dollars be used to teach kids about it?

Steve Forbes: Global cooling is the real problem. Schools are supposed to ban junk foods, now we're going to let in junk science – this thing is not settled. If you want to teach something in schools, how about something useful like economics, balance sheets, balancing a checkbook? Maybe we wouldn't get so much deficit spending if people got that kind of education.

Elizabeth MacDonald: There's no consensus yet on global warming. This whole thing about not teaching something in science makes me think of the saying a conclusion is where the mind comes to rest. I say teach it! I say teach music, evolution, Latin, etc. Bring it all back! That's how you're going to get off of this hamster wheel about whether or not global warming does exist. Maybe we'll find a student who discovers the truth. I say debate it just like we do here on Forbes on Fox.

Rich Karlgaard: Sometimes I think the California legislature exists solely to provide gag lines for comedy writers. This is the same group who taught sexual abstinence by pulling condoms over bananas. Self esteem more important than science. California public schools rank about 41st out of 50 states in the nation, so concentrate on the basics, California.

Victoria Barret: Of course we should be teaching our kids about climate change, but in a way that we discuss it here on the show – showing two sides. The reality is my 10-year-old niece goes to school and gets taught polar bears are going to go extinct because her mom drives her to school in a minivan every day. That's not good science, that's junk science. Also, I don't think legislators should be telling teachers what to teach at this level.

John Rutledge: The government there doesn't just want to teach about global warming, they want to teach a specific conclusion about global warming, which is baloney, by the way. Force-feed climate change to our children? Not on your life. The history of politicians driving agendas in the classroom is not very kind. Climate change is all about science. There's global warming every 1500 years for the last 900 million years. It's mostly the sun doing it. Warm periods are more prosperous than cold periods, and there's a huge money scam going on between the way taxes are credited against this stuff and how carbon trading works.