In recent years, the Los Angeles County Department of Education and the state of California have committed to providing climate education to all students from kindergarten through 12th grade. In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law mandating climate education for all public school students starting in the 2024-25 school year.
Los Angeles-area public schools currently operate under some of the most ambitious policies in the country, according to local school administrators and environmental education advocates.
There’s just one problem: There’s very little additional funding for either.
Tired of waiting for politicians to hand over funding, some teachers are donating their time and talents to design their own climate-related lessons and raise funds for environmental causes on their campuses.
In the Los Angeles Unified School District, these teachers are often designated as “climate champions”: Principals at the district’s roughly 1,220 schools are to select a teacher who will receive $900 a semester to help other educators on their campuses create climate-centered lessons.
“Through the school’s Climate Literacy Champions and every lesson, including science, students will learn about climate change by addressing real-world problems related to the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals,” an LAUSD statement said.
The “champions” meet regularly to support each other, share ideas and work with principals to encourage other teachers to join in. But some say it’s a daunting responsibility, adding to an already heavy workload and potentially leading to burnout.
Implementation of the climate literacy policy has been “patchy,” said Lucy Garcia, a former teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and lead author of the resolution. “Nothing happened the first year. The second year, we only trained 145 champions. We need to train champions in the classrooms faster.” There are now a total of 314 champions.
“There’s universal support for climate literacy” in LAUSD, the district’s chief academic officer said, adding that “we just don’t have the funding to get to the scale that we all want to get to.”
Baez encourages teachers to seek support from nonprofit education funders; her favorite is one that offers a “Minecraft” video game based on the United Nations’ sustainability goals, in which students devise hypothetical solutions to real-world climate problems.
Individual schools get support for their climate change programs from private foundations and federal and state grants.
Ten Strands, one of the leading nonprofits in the field, has been the driving force behind a focused effort to pressure state and local education leaders to meet their mandates.
The network of educators, public school administrators, local and state agencies, and nonprofit partners provide each other with resources, curriculum, and professional support. “Everyone in this effort across the state is singing the same song as one choir,” says Andra Yegoian, the effort’s project director and chief innovation officer.
“Climate literacy is not something that’s taught in isolation, it’s not something that’s taught every day or all day,” Baez said, adding that the goal is to embed it into all learning. “We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’re getting there.”
The potential for change is much greater when it comes to greening campus energy technology, one of the areas where significant federal funding is readily available.
Federal grants can cover 30% to 50% of the costs of solar energy, energy storage technologies and high-efficiency heat pumps. Grants and other assistance are available for electrifying school buses and installing charging stations.
“New federal funding to make schools climate resilient is real and meaningful,” said Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Advancing Sustainable and Healthy Schools Nationwide.
Christos Chrysiliou, LAUSD’s chief environmental sustainability officer, is responsible for obtaining these funds to help the district fulfill its commitment to switch to 100% clean electricity by 2030 and to switch to clean energy in all sectors by 2040, including transportation.
One sign that Los Angeles would benefit from the program was when Crisiliou took to the podium at a White House conference last spring to tout President Biden’s investments in sustainable schools.
Two other potential new funding sources for climate education and strengthening school infrastructure — gardens, outdoor learning spaces and other facilities — are on California ballots in November.
The bill would allow the state to borrow $10 billion for construction and modernization of school facilities, as well as allow the state to borrow $10 billion for climate programs, including clean water, wildfire, forestry and sea level rise projects.
The proposal is real progress, said Michaela Randolph of the nonprofit, which has a goal of covering at least 30% of all school campuses nationwide with tree canopy to help lower temperatures, according to research by the nonprofit.
“The dedicated funding to move this effort forward is an opportunity to reimagine our schools,” Randolph said, allowing for outdoor learning while protecting students from the effects of climate change.
Crisiliou said he can’t wait for funding and is working on developing a “roadmap” for climate literacy education and engagement, construction, operations and maintenance that incorporates social equity and inclusion.
“Outdoor learning is crucial,” he said. “Research shows that students can learn a lot from nature, and we want to develop spaces that are more engaging and more exciting for students.”
“Our students are very concerned about climate change. Our cities have turned into urban environments of asphalt and concrete. Our students don’t want that at school. They are keen to learn about agriculture and plants at school and experience nature,” he said.
