The news went crazy when the U.S. federal government released the results of a National Science Foundation questionnaire titled, “Survey of Public Attitudes Toward and Understanding of Science and Technology,” due to the depressing and outstanding fact that about 25 percent of Americans answered that the sun revolves around the Earth.

The national questionnaire included more than 2,200 participants across the United States. It featured a short quiz about physical and biological science that the majority of respondents failed.

Then, in March, Wyoming governor Matt Mead disappointingly approved a budget that would prevent the state from reviewing or funding a set of science standards that treat climate change as fact. Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. For comparison, global warming refers to the unequivocal and continuing rise in the average temperature of Earth’s climate system.

Although a Wyoming educators committee recommended the adoption of the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), Governor Mead rejected the benchmarks. The president of Climate Parents, Lisa Hoyos, said, “the main reason they’re opposing NGSS is because of climate change."

While many other arguments against the standards are made, the Governor’s rejection of NGSS highlights the fact that the United States education system is very politicized. Politico's Tara Haelle just attacked this politicization of science, which is theoretically supposed to be non-political in her piece, “Democrats have a Problem with Science, Too.” 

Even when the majority of the American public and 97 percent of climate scientists say global warming is real, it is not allowed to be taught in schools in many regions. Banning students from being educated about certain science topics logically could justify why the United States ranks below average in reading, science and math, compared to other countries belonging to the Organization for the Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). Moreover, the United States has only been getting worse in ranks for each category.

The states with the worst science education are generally in the south and if a state has multiple neighboring states that are also below average in science education then that state is more likely to be below average too. Mississippi is the worst in science education. Other states that are below average include, but are not limited to: Oklahoma, Nebraska, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Iowa, Tennessee, Missouri, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina and California.

The NSF questionnaire and Mead’s decision show the disappointing struggles faced in the United State to improve education. Education, especially science education, is vital to making informed life decisions and for an optimal democracy. Education is the best protector of freedom and most powerful weapon to change the world. By neglecting quality science education, as Wyoming has and the NSF questionnaire shows is happening, and by politicizing science, Americans are losing out on opportunities.

The potential consequences of ignoring scientific facts could be disastrous, and often have the consequence of runing it for everyone else who does actually follow the science. For example, vaccination only works optimally if most people vaccinate. Moreover, denying climate change could be linked to deadly natural disasters and other serious consequences for the well-being of humanity, such as a rise in asthma due to increasing air pollution. Ignoring climate change presumably correlates to an absence of disaster-preparedness for climate change. However, the larger picture is declining education standards in general. Studies have shown that the decline in education is jeopardizing national security. Top military commanders have declared climate change as one of our biggest threats.

While it is not easy to educate an entire state, it is easier to educate a few individuals at a time. Therefore, to pass the NSF questionnaire or to learn topics that Wyoming bans, below are the answers to some of the NSF questions and the information behind science-related topics often discussed in the news.

1. The center of the Earth is very hot.

2. All radioactivity is not man-made.

3. The oxygen we breathe comes from plants.

4. It is the father’s gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl.

5. Lasers work on the basis of electromagnetic radiation and not by focusing sound waves.

6. Electrons are smaller than atoms.

7. Antibiotics do not kill viruses; antibiotics only kill bacteria.

8. Cigarette smoking causes lung cancer.

9. Radioactive milk cannot be made safe by boiling it.

10. It takes one year for the Earth to go around the Sun.

11. Light travels faster than sound.

12. The Earth revolves around the Sun.

13. Astrology is not a science, but astronomy is a science. (Therefore, your daily horoscope is not scientifically proven true.)

14. Global Warming is real.

15. Natural Selection is the gradual process by which biological traits become either more or less common in a population as a function of the effect of inherited traits on the differential reproductive success of organisms interacting with their environment.

Reach Contributor Kevin Cheberenchick here.