State Rep. Ty Harrell wants to emphasize science in school.

The Raleigh Democrat plans to work on several bills this session that would boost the so-called "STEM curriculum" — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — from kindergarten through college.

"We need a curriculum that begins from the earliest stages to prepare kids for jobs that are emerging in North Carolina," he said, "so Bank of America or Wachovia won't have to hire someone from India or China."

Harrell said he also plans to reintroduce a bill that died in commitee in 2007 that would allow school districts to create a more comprehensive, age-appropriate sex education program that parents could decide to sign their children up for.

"We're not forcing it on anybody," he said. "We're offering the option for parents to have their kids be informed about the dangers and consequences ... as opposed to burying one's head in the sand and assuming if we don't talk about it, it won't happen."

Harrell said he'll also be looking for more accountability from the state Department of Transportation and trying to close a potential $2 billion shortfall in the state budget.

Some Democrats in Congress might not know of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, but Rep. Brad Miller of Raleigh does.

Miller last year accused the state of Alaska of using an opinion essay written in part by known “climate-doubt” scientists to back its opposition to listing the polar bear as a threatened species, reports Barb Barrett.

Miller is chairman of the oversight panel on the House Science and Technology Committee. He accused ExxonMobil in October of funding un-scientific research because it had given money to one of the essay’s authors, an astrophysicist, for some work in the polar region.

The essay was published in the journal Ecological Complexity and, Miller wrote, cited six times in Alaska’s filing against listing the polar bear.

The debate over the polar bear was a major issue in Alaska last year, with the state opposing its inclusion under the Endangered Species Act. The state argued there was not enough science to determine that the polar bear could become endangered.

“If the Governor of Alaska … cannot tell whether this paper is science or an elaborate editorial, what is a less-sophisticated audience to think?” Miller asked in his letter to ExxonMobil on the issue.

Palin fired back, telling Miller in her own letter that it was he who didn’t understand the issues.

"I fear your comments may squash scientific debate,” she wrote. She also defended the funding of scientific studies by oil companies, writing that it would be fiscally difficult to fund all science with government money.

In its own rebuttal to Miller, ExxonMobil said it understood the essay to have been peer-reviewed.