tag:typepad.com,2003:weblog-1683708 2012-01-20T17:22:08-05:00 news on federal environmental education appropriations, legislation, and policy TypePad tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f088330162ffea5357970d 2012-01-20T17:22:08-05:00 2012-01-20T17:22:08-05:00

If your school resides in one of the 33 participating states, you can now apply to your state education authority to be one of up to four nominees from your state for the new U.S. Department of Education 2012 Green Ribbon Award! Most if not all schools who are nominated by their state are likely to win the Green Ribbon award, so consider applying now. General information on Green Ribbon can be found at: www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools/index.html While the award confers no immediate federal funds, winners of the Green Ribbon, like U.S. Department of Education Blue Ribbon award winners, are likely to...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f08833015393f95a85970b 2011-12-03T19:09:31-05:00 2011-12-03T19:09:31-05:00

34 states have announced that they are supporting the fast-growing green school movement by participating in the pilot year of the U.S. Department of Education's Green Ribbon School award program. These states represent 2/3rds of the nation, and are divided almost evenly between states with Republican Governors and those with Democratic Governors. Green schools are clearly a bipartisan issue: saving operating costs, improving the health of students, reducing negative environmental impact and improving student performance are issues which concern us all. The Green Ribbon program is the first comprehensive green school initiative to come from the federal government. More than...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f08833015436981528970c 2011-11-02T20:48:47-04:00 2011-11-02T20:48:47-04:00

The U.S. Department of Education released the proceedings report today from their “Sustainability Education Summit: Citizenship and Pathways for a Green Economy”, held back in September, 2010. The Summit was originally mandated by the 110th Congress in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (Public Law 110-315, enacted in 2008) as a result of efforts led by CEL and championed by many of you. This is the first report on sustainability education ever released by the Department of Education (or any other federal agency), and it provides an overview of Summit activities and recommends ways to advance sustainability education throughout the country....

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f08833015435c8842f970c 2011-09-29T15:56:01-04:00 2011-09-29T15:56:01-04:00

It's now real, thanks to your help! The U.S. Department of Education (ED) opened the Green Ribbon Schools Award Competition for FY2011/2012 a few minutes ago by posting the finalized the award criteria, process, and timeline online (www2.ed.gov/programs/green-ribbon-schools) along with a video message from Secretary Duncan (www.ed.gov/blog/2011/09/final-plans-announced-for-green-ribbon-schools/). For this critical first year, ED will need our help in quickly enlisting state governments to participate in the program. So we're mounting a major push to get the word out to teachers and administrators across the country to contact their state departments of education and urge them to participate in the program....

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f08833015431fb04d5970c 2011-04-27T11:07:30-04:00 2011-04-27T11:07:30-04:00

Thanks to your help, we did it: the Green Ribbon Award program is being launched! Here's a link to the White House blog talking about the announcement ceremony yesterday: www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2011/04/26/cultivating-seeds-knowledge-growing-greener-future-our-nation. Yesterday's event marks a significant milestone in the green school movement, and we applaud Secretary Duncan, Administrator Jackson, and Chair Sutley for taking this historic step forward. Green Ribbon is more than just another award program. It puts the weight of the federal government and in particular the U.S. Department of Education behind a comprehensive vision for green schools. And with a strong push from everyone, it will significantly accelerate...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f088330147e298e4cf970b 2011-02-15T15:42:30-05:00 2011-02-15T15:42:30-05:00

CEL is helping to organize the sign-on letter below urging the Department of Education to create a "Green Ribbon Award" program. Modeled loosely on their very successful Blue Ribbon Award, this new comprehensive award would set a comprehensive and high benchmark for green schools and will dramatically raise the visibility of green school concept across the nation. Please consider adding your organization's name to the attached letter by emailing me (Elder@FundEE.org) by February 28. We are confident that a strong response from the stakeholder community for this idea will convince the Department to take it on, so it is essentially...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f088330147e11e807b970b 2010-12-29T16:56:03-05:00 2010-12-29T16:56:03-05:00

2010 was an historic year for environmental and sustainability education (ESE), with more legislative and policy activity than ever before. However, we were only able to capitalize on some of this activity and turn it into hard support before year end. Appropriations: Congress has passed several "Continuing Resolutions" for FY2011 which fund a vast majority of federal programs at 2010 levels for the duration of the resolution (currently until March 4, 2011). This is mixed news: we should maintain our historic high levels of funding for environmental and sustainability education (see chart below), but we will have lost the additional...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f0883301348849b763970c 2010-10-18T11:53:40-04:00 2010-10-18T11:53:40-04:00

The Department of Education last week announced their Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education's Comprehensive Program grants for FY10. One of the priorities for this grant program was the University Sustainability Program, authorized by the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008. Four grants totaling $3.12 million were made: 1. Association of American Colleges and Universities (DC) Title: Mobilizing Disciplinary Societies on Behalf of Our Students...and Our Planet. Award: $869,937 2. Michigan State University (MI) Title: Competency-based Assessment of Liberal Learning Goals through Institutional Experiential Education for Global Sustainability. rd: $628,416 3. Purdue University Calumet (IN) Title: Mixed Reality Simulators...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f088330133f1eae241970b 2010-06-28T17:45:17-04:00 2010-06-28T17:45:17-04:00

Great news! After five years of work on the Higher Education Sustainability Act (now the University Sustainability Program at the Department of Education), we finally can announce that funds are available. Last week, the Department of Education released the FY 2010 RFP for the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education's (FIPSE) $28 million Comprehensive Program competition. As Congress specified (thanks largely to the hard work of many of you), the University Sustainability Program is one of eight "Invitational Priorities" for the RFP. The Department is estimating they'll make 37 awards averaging $738,000 each. Here's the RFP link (http://www2.ed.gov/legislation/FedRegister/announcements/2010-2/061410d.html). Proposals...

James Elder tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00e5538524f088330120a9609b8e970b 2010-03-21T21:34:12-04:00 2010-03-21T21:34:12-04:00

The House passed the Ocean, Coastal, and Watershed Education Act (HR 3644) on Friday, March 19, by a vote of 244 to 170, with bipartisan support (9 Republicans) and one minor amendment. HR 3644 authorizes and expands two existing National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration education grant programs: the national Environmental Literacy Grants (ELG) program and the regional Bay-Watershed Education and Training (B-WET) program. It authorizes $145 million over 5 years, and allows NOAA to expand the program to new regions, with priority given to new programs for the Great Lakes region, Alaska, Mid-Atlantic region, and U.S. Territories. Congratulations to all...

James Elder