Wyoming Governor Matt Mead says that he wants the State Board of Education to adopt rigorous science standards.

He recently signed into law a budget footnote that prevents the State Board of Education from adopting a set of national standards called Next Generation Science Standards. The governor says his only objective in doing that was to get the board to consider a variety of options as it develops Wyoming education standards.                

“Say how do we make sure this is what we want in Wyoming that gives us the rigorous standards, but also isn’t just off the shelf in sort of a canned matter and is gone through and the board of education says here’s what we think it ought to be and it also allows public input.”

Mead spoke about the standards debate during a news conference with reporters.  He said that he wants Wyoming to look a number of options and develop the best standards possible.

Mead said while 36 states are considering the Next Generation Standards, few have adopted them. He also pushed back against claims that he doesn’t want climate change to be discussed in Wyoming schools.

“I don’t think in schools you can say we have an area here that is just off limits, we are not gonna talk about it.  I think that should be part of the discussion and hopefully it could be presented in a way that there’s fair treatment of it and both perspectives are provided.”

The State Board of Education will consider how to proceed with developing science standards at a meeting Friday in Casper.