Tell Congress to Fund Environmental Education

There’s been another disappointing turn of events here in Washington. President Obama’s new budget proposal to Congress seeks to eliminate funding for the Environmental Education Program at EPA, the Environmental Literacy Grants program at the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Bay-Watershed Education Training initiative also at NOAA.

Over several decades, these programs have successfully served millions of Americans – state governments, local school districts, classroom teachers, and many more – in all 50 states. Yet, the Obama Administration is proposing these draconian cuts, and Earth Day Network needs your help to stop them. 

These programs are more critical than ever in supporting green careers, life-long education and environmental stewardship in an age of increasing change and complexity. We need to equip the present generation of students – the future leaders of our country – with the knowledge and skills necessary to thrive in the 21st century. Eliminating EPA’s and NOAA’s environmental education programming does not prepare our nation’s students for a myriad of present-day and future economic, security and environmental challenges. Instead, actions like these add to the growing list of concerns that spell the same conclusion: America’s educational system is failing and becoming irrelevant. But this doesn’t have to be the case.

Urge your members of Congress to continue investments in Environmental Education NOW, not cuts that hinder our ability to lead in the 21st century global economy!