Top state officials in Maryland are promoting a plan that would make the study of environmental education a graduation requirement for all public school students.
Nancy S. Grasmick, the state superintendent of schools, said the proposal—still subject to change before being taken up by the state school board this fall—enjoys widespread support among district superintendents and is backed by Gov. Martin O’Malley, a Democrat. She emphasized that the proposal would not mandate that students take a particular course, but instead would call on districts to ensure that environmental literacy is “threaded through” the curriculum.
It would be the first time a state has added a high school graduation requirement on environmental literacy, according to Donald R. Baugh, the vice president for education at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, a nonprofit group based in Annapolis, Md., that supports the plan.
