Green Schools and Environmental Education
Students sitting in classrooms today are the future of the American economy. They will be the ones building, designing, teaching, selling, implementing, and maintaining all the facets of industries that will drive the global economy.
The BlueGreen Alliance and its labor and environmental partners outlined their goals for modernizing and renovating America’s public schools and incorporating environmental education in today’s curriculum.
The reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) provides federal policymakers with an opportunity and responsibility to provide them with the necessary foundation to shape and participate in that future economy.
To do so successfully, they will need to attain a level of environmental literacy and occupational skills to navigate a carbon-constrained world in which clean energy will be the most important economic development race of states and nations. They will require learning environments that are safe and healthy and that model the green future that we must rely on them to build. Our country’s future competitiveness relies on the success of its students. If they fail, we all do. We can help our children achieve the foundation they need by making some common-sense reforms to Elementary and Secondary Education Act as Congress reauthorizes the Act.