Lennie Jarratt was the former director of the Center for Educational Opportunities at the Heartland Institute. He was the former managing editor of Champion News from 2013-2014 and a former managing editor for Education Matters from 2004-2011. He focuses mainly on educational choice and Common Core, and he has presented his analyses on these subjects on Fox News, Breitbart, and ABC Chicago.
On Climate Change
His focus on education and his belief that climate science isn’t “settled” intersects in the form of several different campaigns. The most prominent one was in 2017, when the Heartland Institute sent a package containing their book, Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming, and an accompanying DVD to teachers in the public school system all across the United States. For the cover letter, Jarratt wrote that
“I am writing to ask you to consider the possibility that the science in fact is not “settled.” If that’s the case, then students would be better served by letting them know a vibrant debate is taking place among scientists on how big the human impact on climate change is, and whether or not we should be worried about it…the most widely reported claim…that ‘97% of scientists agree’…is not only false, but its presence in the debate is an insult to science.”
On Education Reform
In 2015, Jarratt wrote an article on Common Core, criticizing the idea that it will include information regarding climate change. The Common Core was developed by the National Research Council in conjunction with the National Academy of Sciences, which works closely with the federal government. As an opponent, Jarratt criticized this curriculum because, “From the council’s perspective, the science of climate change has already been settled. Not surprisingly, global climate change is one of the disciplinary core ideas embedded in the Next Generation of Science Standards.”
Jarratt also has spoken out against virtual education during the COVID-19 pandemic, writing that “the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the teachers unions and others in the education establishment as a Hydra that will go to great lengths to insure that in-person learning is denied throughout the country.”
See Also:
COVID-19
James Taylor, Marita Noon, Gene Koprowski, Joseph Bast
Climate of Denial