The scorching summer in Texas this year was the second hottest on record — but students in the southwestern US state might have a hard time understanding why.

That’s because a slew of science textbooks submitted to the state Board of Education (BOE) were rejected last week, as the Republican-dominated body moves to curtail education materials deemed too “one-sided” on climate change.

Many of the rejected books taught that “humans are negatively impacting the environment. And the scare tactics that come with that, that is my main issue,” Evelyn Brooks, a Republican board member, told AFP.

She claimed, counter to scientists and the federal government, that “the science is not settled on global warming.”

America’s decentralized education system leaves curriculum management mostly up to individual states, with local school districts also having a degree of autonomy.

That has led to fraught battles across the country as each jurisdiction debates how to teach climate change and other politically charged issues, such as racism and sexuality.

It also leaves room for […]