Climate Age

A June 2023 report by the U.S Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools and the Campaign for Environmental Literacy looks at the critical role that state legislators across the U.S. can play in supporting, much needed, climate change education in schools.  

States, along with local jurisdictions, provide more than 90% of the funding for America’s public K-12 education system. State education agencies are particularly important to establishing uniform standards, guidelines, and assessments to keep instruction quality uniformly high, statewide.

Many states have adopted the Next Generation Science Standards, or some adapted version of them, that include climate change education guidance.  But, this is not enough. They have often encountered a need to better prepare educators on the subject. This is due to the complex nature of climate change causes, consequences and solutions. Some legislatures, as indicated in the report: State-Level Legislation Concerning K-12 Climate Change Education, have provided funding to help prime the pump for improved educator preparation. Others have used focused legislation to more clearly require climate science and solutions to be part of education in the classroom.  And, others have passed bills to provide funding to schools and non-profit organizations to build model programs and provide best practice resources.

Sometimes moving a bill through a state legislature to support climate education can be challenging due to perceived controversies. But, the report contains common sense pointers on how to describe the long-term benefits of building climate education into the curriculum in ways that will calm a skeptic.  Among these talking points:

• Eight of ten parents want climate education for their children,

• Climate education will help the next generation handle and adapt to uncertainty and changes in the weather and climate-related stresses such as: flooding, drought, heat waves, wild fires and more.

• Climate education is an excellent precursor to future career and job development training for a changing energy, economic and technological future.

States have a central role to play in advancing climate change education for the next generation and the State-Level Legislation Concerning K-12 Climate Change Education report contains a helpful blueprint for education advocates to advance the effectiveness of legislators in crafting smart and effective climate change education policies, supported by much-needed funding.