LANSING, MI -- Proposed cuts to climate change and civil rights issues in Michigan classroom guidelines were rejected in a new draft of changes to social studies curriculum standards presented to the State Board of Education on Tuesday.

Changes proposed in a 2018 draft of K-12 education standards sought to eliminate references to climate change, “core democratic values,” the Klu Klux Klan, NAACP, LGBT rights and Roe v. Wade, resulting in backlash from teachers and parents across Michigan. Tuesday, the State Board of Education reviewed a new 146-page draft that restored that language and increased references to issues that were previously on the chopping block.

Public outrage after the 2018 draft was published caused the state to convene a broader and more inclusive group of experts, educators and parents. A bias review task force was also created to prevent political bias while the draft was tweaked.

Deputy Superintendent Venessa Keesler said the "standards are not about politics,” but acknowledged a recent New York Times report examining political influence on the process.

“We should not let the Republicans win and get what they want or the Democrats win and get what they want, then we’ve failed at the idea of presenting all of the perspectives and the diversity of thought that is important for our country,” Keesler said. “We want to depoliticize them as much as possible.”

Tom McMillin, a Republican member of the board, said bias is always present when deciding what to remove or include in social studies classes.

McMillin criticized the new draft for being “extremely far left" and made a motion to send the draft standards back for revisions to address its “serious liberal bias, historically inaccurate and sloppy nature." The motion failed in the majority-Democratic board.

“If you want to keep getting people to leave the public schools, if you want to shrink any kind of interest in increasing public funding for schools, there will be a lot of taxpayers who say I don’t want public funding of this,” McMillin said.

Democrats on the board said the standards are not perfect, but come closer to neutrality than previous attempts to update 2007 social studies standards. Democrat Lupe Ramos-Montigny said the new standards are “more inclusive, more equitable and more rational.”

Keesler said most of the changes between the 2018 and 2019 drafts are a result of public comment during the last year.

Proposals to remove references to climate change and the word “democratic” from the phrase “core democratic values” were pushed by then-Sen. Patrick Colbeck, R-Canton Township, and other conservative advocates he invited to review the standards. Colbeck is not listed among people charged with revising the proposed changes in 2018.

Since the 2018 draft was introduced, the State Board of Education changed from a 4-4 partisan split to a 6-2 Democratic majority after 2018 midterm elections.

The state created multiple task forces to redraft the social studies standards based on public feedback. Nine more public work sessions will be held on the new draft before the board votes in June, Keesler said.

If the standards are adopted, the state will begin training teachers on how to use them. However, each school district across the state can use the document as it sees fit to revise its own curriculum.

“Standards are not curriculum nor are they a script,” Keesler said. “We respect the professionalism of educators to know how to implement these standards.”

Below are some of the proposed changes.

Climate change

Several new references to climate change were added in a portion of the standards pertaining to sixth-grade geography. Standards proposed in 2018 sought to remove language on climate change.

Updated standards include references to how fossil fuel and plastics use, deforestation, litter and over-fertilization can cause changes in the physical environment, including global climate change.

One section in sixth-grade geography on the impact of technology on the environment has been expanded to include examples of the positive and negative effects of wind and solar power, fracking, deforestation and the use of pesticides and herbicides.

An existing standard dealing with interpreting and comparing climographs across the world now includes additional examples for how climate change impacts ecosystems.

Another new reference to the Paris Climate Accords was added in a section of standards regarding examples of how U.S. foreign policy impacts international institutions. Climate change was also retained in standards detailing examples to use when teaching students about how governments address national and international issues.

Civil rights

Previously proposed changes cut references to civil rights, Roe v. Wade, the Klu Klux Klan and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Updated changes presented Tuesday restored many of these references and added new ones in some places.

A standard dealing with sixth-grade civics includes a new reference to civil rights in discussions on how governments address national and international issues.

One section of the standards detailing civil rights in the post-World War II era was expanded to include references to accomplishments and setbacks made by indigenous peoples, Latinos, new immigrants, people with disabilities, and gays and lesbians.

Several events, laws and U.S. Supreme Court rulings that occurred during various civil rights movements were also added.

A reference to the NAACP’s legal strategy of attacking segregation was added in one section covering America’s growth in the 1920s.

Proposed standards remove a reference to the Ku Klux Klan as an example in a section of the standards where teachers are urged to teach students about what can happen in the breakdown of the rule of law.

Other examples that were also included in the deleted section included police corruption, organized crime, interfering with the right to vote, and perjury.

American Civil War

Guidelines for high school social studies were also updated to include discussion on how the Civil War led to the creation of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

New examples of anti-slavery figures were added to a section describing the resistance of enslaved people and the effects of their actions before and during the Civil War.

A section regarding the social, political, economic and cultural reasons for secession was simplified.

One reference to the resistance of Southern whites to African-Americans taking roles in government after the Civil War was cut.

Holocaust and genocide

Standards for high school classes already included analysis of mass murders perpetrated by Nazi Germany and other 20th century genocides. A 2016 law signed by then-Gov. Rick Snyder specifically required public schools to spend time on the Holocaust and 1915 Armenian Genocide.

A new section was added to specifically review case studies both genocides, and at least one other mass murder event.

The section now includes expanded guidelines for discussion on the the ideology and policies that led to genocide, as well as the international community’s response, and investigations into policies to address and prevent genocide in the future.