Virginia Governor Signs Education Bill Over Conservative Objections
EdNews Virginia | April 27, 2026
Virginia’s public, government-run schools will soon be mandated to instruct students on “climate change” and “environmental literacy,” according to legislation signed by Governor Abigail Spanberger last week.
The new law, House Bill 1037, requires the Board of Education to curate and distribute materials based on “peer-reviewed scientific sources.” The measure, which takes effect July 1, 2026, aims to standardize climate education across the Commonwealth’s 131 school divisions.
A Shift in Policy
The new law highlights a significant shift in Virginia’s educational landscape. An identical measure, HB 1088, was passed by the General Assembly in 2024 but was vetoed by then-Governor Glenn Youngkin, who argued the mandate was redundant and would needlessly burden education officials.
Supporters of the law, including the National Center for Science Education (NCSE), have long advocated for the change. In a 2020 study, the NCSE gave Virginia’s science standards a failing grade regarding climate change.
“This law ensures that our students are equipped with the best available science to understand the world they are inheriting,” said Delegate Betsy Carr (D-Richmond), the bill’s primary sponsor. “It’s not about politics; it’s about providing a foundation of evidence-based literacy.”
Concerns Over Bias and ‘Alarmism’
While the bill passed with a comfortable margin in the House, it faced stiff opposition from conservative lawmakers and policy groups who question the necessity of the mandate and the veracity of the “alarmist” climate narrative.
Critics argue that the focus on human-caused climate change may lead to biased instruction that overlooks the economic costs of green energy policies or downplays natural climate variability. Stephen D. Haner, a senior fellow at the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, a prominent Virginia-based conservative think tank, has frequently challenged the “climate crisis” framing.
“Data that undercuts the entire alarmist narrative are easy to find,” Haner wrote in a recent analysis for the Institute. He argued that tidal and temperature data in Virginia do not support claims of a looming catastrophe, stating, “The scary predictions of seas rising rapidly have been around for decades now but are not panning out in the data. There is no evidence of any climate-driven crisis, certainly not in Virginia.”
Others, including analysts from the Heartland Institute, worry that schools might effectively “indoctrinate” students by characterizing a tentative consensus as undebatable. These skeptics maintain that educators should instead focus on the “scientific controversy” and allow students to explore various perspectives on the extent of humanity’s impact on the climate.
Implementation Timeline
The Virginia Board of Education is now tasked with developing model policies for the selection of environmental literacy materials. Under the law, any resources offered to local school boards must be rooted in peer-reviewed research.
As school divisions begin integrating the new climate-related lessons, educators will increasingly have to balance official mandates with families’ growing concerns over ideological bias.