Edwin J. Viera

A New York bill would require age-appropriate instruction and update learning expectations for climate education in the classroom.

The proposal would establish climate-change courses for all public elementary and secondary schools. It also would provide professional learning opportunities for teachers, so they’d have a better understanding of this subject.

Polls show parents, students and teachers are eager to make this a part of education, given its wide-ranging impacts on the state.

Emily Fano, senior manager for climate-resilience education programs at the National Wildlife Federation, said the bill would close an existing education gap.

“It would enable educators to explore the causes and impacts of climate change, as well as its solutions,” she said, “which is very unique because now, students don’t learn about solutions to the climate crisis, they really only learn about the problems, if they’re lucky, and that’s if they take AP Environmental Science in high school.”

However, not many New York kids take that class. New Jersey and Connecticut have already made climate change part of their curricula.

In New York, Fano said the State Education Department has voiced some concern about the arduous process of changing standards. She noted the bill isn’t asking to change the standards, but to update them with more current information.

A 2021 United Federation of Teachers survey found 68% of teachers don’t have time to teach climate change, but 52% are only teaching it for one to two hours per year. Teacher-friendly guides have been published to help educators understand the climate crisis.

Of the many reasons climate change isn’t taught in schools yet, Fano said, one of them is long-standing denialism.

“In the 1980s, there was a lot of climate denialism going on, being pushed by the fossil-fuel companies, as we know,” she said. “That really set us back decades in terms of acceptance of the climate crisis as real.”

One goal of this legislation is to bolster the green economy. As New York makes the transition to cleaner fuels, Fano said people must have the necessary skills to take on those jobs. She sees this bill is a starting point that could help lead to establishing career and technical education courses for green jobs.