On March 23, 2022, Idaho Governor Brad Little signed a bill to adopt new science, math, and English academic standards for K-12 students. The Idaho Content Standards, a variation of Common Core and Next Generation Science guidelines, were adopted by the state in 2011 as a means of increasing Idaho students’ college- and career-readiness. In 2020, when the Idaho Content Standards Science Review Committee was set to review the education standards, the state legislature sent state officials a letter urging the committee to replace the Content Standards. Representative Dorothy Moon, Chair of the Idaho Republican Party, was a member of the science standards committee and “opposed science standards that cast Idaho businesses and industry in a negative light.” The new law adopted the science standards that came out of the committee.
Representative Moon and other conservative lawmakers who “have long lamented the science standards, due to their references to climate change” praised the passage of the bill. Moon in particular had expressed concerns about the science standards, which included references to the human impact on the environment and "didn't promote the industries that founded this state," like logging, mining, or ranching.