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Take Action for No Child Left Inside |
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What’s happening?
The U.S. Department of Education is working on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, or No Child Left Behind), and we need to help make sure the bill includes provisions for environmental and outdoor education (pre-K thru grade 12), as outlined in the No Child Left Inside Act. In other words, we need to make sure there is an environmental education component in the Act.
The No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Coalition has reached out to 1,500 organizations, NWP among them, to help mobilize people and ask them to contact the Department of Education (DOE) with this message: include provisions for No Child Left Inside (environmental education) in the reauthorized Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
How can I help?
Please send an email to
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and let Dept. of Education Secretary Duncan and the Obama Administration know that you support the inclusion of NCLI in the reauthorized ESEA. DOE officials have indicated that public comments are being carefully scrutinized as they consider new language for the bill. The No Child Left Inside Coalition has set a goal of flooding DOE with 50,000 comments about the need to include environmental education in ESEA.
Here's a sample letter that you can copy, paste and send to:
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. Of course, we encourage you to personalize your letter however you wish, perhaps by adding your reasons for supporting NCLI as an outdoors enthusiast, parent, educator, health advocate or businessperson.
Dear Secretary Duncan,
As you consider strategies to strengthen and amend ESEA, I urge you to consider the provisions laid out in the No Child Left Inside Act, which would expand opportunities for environmental and outdoor education in America’s schools.
Comprehensive environmental education has been shown to improve student achievement across core subject areas and increase engagement
in learning. Environmental education is critical to providing our students with
the knowledge and skills to tackle complex problems, and succeed in a green economy. 
What’s more, getting kids outside and active promotes a healthy lifestyle that is essential to fighting obesity and reducing symptoms associated with attention deficit disorder, depression, and stress. Leaving environmental education out of ESEA would be a missed opportunity to improve education while helping to systemically address the Obama administration’s other priorities of energy independence, a strengthened economy, and a healthier nation. I support the inclusion of NCLI in the reauthorized ESEA.
Sincerely, Your Name and Address
Why is this important?
Environmental education for kids is a no-brainer. Ask anyone under the age of 20; they know it in their bones. Faced with global climate change, habitat conservation challenges in the their own backyards, and unprecedented opportunities arising with renewable energy development, coming generations need all the environmental education we can possibly give them. Plus, organizations such as ours—and many others—need their creativity and unmatched technological skills to forge ahead and re-shape the conservation community.
An NWP staff member recently participated in a conference call with the No Child Left Inside (NCLI) Coalition. She was enthusiastic about what she heard, and quickly saw that NWP could help the coalition and, in turn, be positively impacted by that participation. This Take Action page—and your follow-through—is step one. Step two will take shape in 2010, as we introduce our new Adopt-a-Wildlife Corridor program into two Reno schools. There are no better advocates for wildlife habitat and linkages than 5th graders-turned-citizen scientists, armed with pencils, data sheets, Google Earth, and unfettered passion. Stay tuned. We’ll post more as the program unfolds.
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