Advocates for environmental education are continuing to push their cause. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., has signed up to be the Senate’s sponsor of the No Child Left Inside Act.
“The No Child Left Inside Act will help reconnect more kids with nature and restore environmental education in America’s classrooms,” Reed says in a press release from the coalition of environmental and education groups pushing the bill.
On the coalition’s Web site, you’ll see that it has been partially successful in its lobbying, at least in the House. In its comments on the Title I section of the House’s NCLB discussion draft, the coalition notes that the draft doesn’t list environmental education as a core subject. In a separate response to the Title V draft, the coalition expresses its gratitude that the draft includes several grants to support environmental education. But it suggests that those grants wouldn’t work because the Title V proposal wouldn’t require states applying for the money to develop “environmental literacy” plans.
Maybe the coalition will do better in the Senate. As the last paragraph of the press release points out, Reed could be an influential advocate. He is a member the committee that sets education policy and the subcommittee that oversees education spending.
