Dive Brief:

• A group of Wyoming churches is calling on the state to implement the Next Generation Science Standards.  
• Earlier this year, state legislators squashed a proposal to implement the new standards, arguing they did not feel comfortable with the teaching of man-made climate change as fact — primarily due to the impact it could have on the state's coal and oil industries.
• The Wyoming Association of Churches says it believes science should be taught transparently without catering to any belief system.  

Dive Insight:

While the standards were rejected because of the teaching of man-made climate change as fact, they also included portions dealing with evolution that will now not be implemented in schools.

This is not sitting well with the Wyoming Association of Churches. "Science is important, peer-proven," Rev. Warren Murphy, an Episcopalian minister and environmental projects coordinator for the church group, told the AP. "Faith is something else. It shouldn't interfere with what science is doing."

Wyoming education officials have been developing their own standards since the state rejected the Next Generation standards last winter.