BY BRIAN PERBIX
Prairie Rivers Network was dismayed to learn last year that the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) is using taxpayer money to market a one-sided view of coal to students as the safe and clean fuel of the future.
“From the Coal Mines to the Power Lines” is a K-12 curriculum that offers teachers detailed lesson plans to incorporate coal into every subject area. Teachers are invited to learn how to use this program at the annual Coal Education Conference – a state sponsored, all expenses paid professional development retreat for teachers at Rend Lake Resort where agency staff and coal industry representatives sing the praises of coal.
It may not surprise you that state sponsored coal education materials provide no information about how coal mining, burning, or waste disposal threaten our clean water. Sadly, the materials also coach teachers to question whether human use of fossil fuels is contributing to global climate change.
Illinois is one of three states that uses taxpayer money to produce and distribute coal marketing materials under the guise of legitimate education.
With our partners in the Heartland Coalfield Alliance, Prairie Rivers Network has asked the Governor’s office to immediately halt the distribution of the state sponsored coal curriculum and to cancel the annual Coal Education Retreat. So far we have received no indication that either the DCEO or Governor Quinn will put our children’s science education ahead of coal industry interests.//
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