UPDATE: Status of the Office of Environmental Education

The N.C. Office of Environmental Education has received numerous requests for information about the impacts to our office as a result of the recently proposed budget cuts in the Senate. See below for detailed information on the impacts to the operations of the Office.

The Senate Bill eliminates two positions in the Office of Environmental Education, the adult environmental education program manager (river basin and informed consumer programs, and all public awareness programs for adults) and the PreK-12 environmental education program manager (teacher training institutes, outdoor classroom symposium, Environmental Literacy Plan development and all PreK-12 Programs) within the Office of Environmental Education.

The House Appropriations Subcommittee on Natural and Economic Resources is meeting today to review Senate budget and take input from committee members. A vote is expected to be taken in subcommittee by next Thursday. The Appropriations Committee of the North Carolina House of Representatives will hold a public hearing on Monday, May 24, to receive comments about the state budget. The hearing will be held from 7-10 p.m. at the McKimmon Center on the campus of North Carolina State University. Email comments concerning the budget may be sent to town.hall@ncleg.net up to midnight of May 25.


The N.C. Office of Environmental Education serves as a national model for providing access to and policy for environmental education.

The N.C. Office of Environmental Education was established by the N.C. Environmental Education Act of 1993, which called for the creation of the Office of Environmental Education within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. (Link to legislation)

In 2000, the office had a staff of 10. Since that time, the staff has been cut in half. The office, which is functioning now with five employees, would be reduced by two under the Senate’s proposal. The two positions proposed for elimination include the PreK-12 Program Manager and the Adult Environmental Education Program Manager. This proposal would essentially repeal the N.C. Environmental Education Act, setting our state back 17 years.

These two positions, as well as the other positions in the office, are critical to the success of the N.C. Environmental Education Certification Program. The certification program’s continued growth is dependent upon the support the office provides to both formal PreK-12 classroom teachers and nonformal educators including adult educators. Both the positions proposed for elimination support the development of the certification program. The N.C. Environmental Education Certification Program cannot successfully function without the support of the Office of Environmental Education and its remaining staff.

In addition, the office has made some exciting accomplishments within the last year that would be severely affected by the current proposal.

· The Office most recently released the state's 10-year plan for environmental education. In order to meet the goals of this plan, the office must remain a fully staffed entity.

· The office is leading the effort to create a state environmental literacy plan for PreK-12 schools, which could potentially bring millions of federal dollars to the state to enhance statewide public education. The funding is being proposed through the No Child Left Inside legislation, which is one of four key pieces of legislation being considered as part of the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act at the federal level. The plan will help better prepare North Carolina students to face environmental challenges in the future, as well as placing the state in a position to take advantage of federal funding. The PreK-12 position, with support from all 4 positions in the office, is critical to the development of this plan. On May 12, the Office of Environmental Education and partners launched the state’s Environmental Literacy Plan. (See news coverage of the event).

· Since 2002, the PreK-12 Program has led the development and coordination of high-quality professional development institutes and symposia for classroom teachers. More than 250 teachers have learned how to teach their students to use critical-thinking, problem-solving and decision-making skills by investigating locally relevant environmental issues and incorporating outdoor learning into their classroom. As a result, more than 138,000 students continue to be positively impacted by teacher participation in these professional development programs. These professional development opportunities and the resulting student impacts would not be possible without the leadership of the PreK-12 position, which is currently proposed for elimination.

· The Office received a $99,000 Stormwater Compliance Grant from Wal-Mart last year to continue the highly successful river basin educational awareness program. The Division of Water Quality has made changes to the state’s river basin boundaries and this grant would allow the office to make those changes to the river basin maps and booklets distributed to teachers and non-formal educators across the state. The office has distributed hundreds of thousands of these publications to educators and this grant would allow the office to provide these resources to other educators and citizens. The Adult Environmental Education Program Manager being considered for elimination is responsible for this program among many other programs in the office. This program was part of an effort that began in the 1990s to educate citizens about their connection to their environment and to increase environmental awareness among the adult population. This program and the consultation it provides to other agencies will not exist if the adult environmental education program manager position is eliminated.

· The office has joined eight Southeastern states in an effort to increase access to environmental education programs, resources and events. This partnership provided funding through EPA to create an online searchable database of all the environmental education resources in the state. This program is also managed by the Adult Environmental Education Program Manager, a position which is being proposed for elimination.

· In April, the Office of Environmental Education recognized 185 formal and non-formal educators for completing the EE Certification Program. North Carolina is now home to more than 900 certified environmental educators.

The PreK-12 and adult environmental education programs are essential to the mission of the Office of Environmental Education. The PreK-12 and adult environmental education programs are severely understaffed as they currently exist, with two people serving the needs of the entire state. By necessity, all five of the office’s staff collaborates on multiple grants and programs; individual staff members are not solely responsible for program areas. The five positions remaining are all critical to meeting the mandate in the office's legislation. Any further cuts of this program will render the program essentially ineffective.