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Washington, DC -- U.S. Rep. John P. Sarbanes will visit with students from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and representatives of the No Child Left Inside Coalition to highlight legislation he introduced last week to strengthen environmental education. The legislation, expected to be included in the reauthorized No Child Left Behind law, has strong support from the No Child Left Inside Coalition, a national coalition that includes the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation, Audubon and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, as well as from the National Education Association.
“We’ve heard from many environmental education experts about how the No Child Left Behind’s strong focus on testing has led many teachers to reduce the time spent on environmental sciences,” said Congressman John Sarbanes. “This legislation will help turn our children, whose generation will ultimately be responsible for saving the planet, into environmental stewards.”
In many cases, field trips and outdoor environmental activities have been curtailed because school leaders are reluctant to take time away from instruction in subjects that are tested. “We see firsthand the value of environmental education and the spark it ignites in young people,” said William C. Baker, President of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a leader of the Coalition. “But we have heard from so many teachers who have been forced to scale back or eliminate the time they used to spend on the environment. This trend is headed in the wrong direction.”
The No Child Left Inside legislation, would:
Require states seeking new environmental education grants under No Child Left Behind to develop and submit a K-12 plan to ensure that high school graduates are environmentally literate. States receiving such funds would submit status reports on how those plans are being implemented.
Provide new funding for states to develop, improve and advance environmental education standards.
Provide new funding to train qualified teachers to teach environmental education courses and programs.
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