Toward more climate-friendly schools

If there are opportunities for school system leaders to take climate-friendly steps in their efforts to protect students and staff from COVID-19, then why not consider them?

From his earliest days in office, President Joe Biden has made it clear that addressing climate change would be a top priority for his administration. In addition to nominating former Environment Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy as his domestic “climate czar” and former Secretary of State John Kerry as his special presidential envoy for climate, Biden quickly issued a series of executive orders focused on the topic. Individual agencies have even taken steps. In February, for example, the Treasury Department announced it would create a new position within the agency to study the effects of climate change on the nation’s financial systems.

I find it comforting to know that we finally have national leaders who acknowledge the urgency of climate change. Surprisingly, however, the education sector has been mostly absent, to date, from policy conversations on this topic. For example, the president’s recently established National Climate Task Force includes 21 federal agencies and entities, yet it did not initially include the U.S. Department of Education (which has since been added). This kind of oversight is rather ironic when you consider the effects that climate-related natural disasters have had on schools over the last several years. In Puerto Rico alone, Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017 wreaked so much havoc on the island’s already challenged schools that many communities are still struggling to rebuild. Add to that forest fires in California and Oregon, flooding and freak snowstorms in Texas, and perhaps the most consequential natural disaster of all, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, and you have some very compelling examples of why the education sector should be at the table when discussing climate change.

Our international counterparts acknowledge education’s place in climate discussions, but the bulk of their efforts pertain to teaching and learning about the climate; little attention goes to the environmental impact of schools themselves, or to the schools’ potential role in carbon reduction. For example, the United Nations Educational Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) advocates for policies that “expand education activities that focus on sustainability issues.” The organization’s Education for Sustainable Development program was developed to guide policy makers and educators in their efforts to teach students about climate change and sustainability. Both the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Agreement recognize the vital role education plays in combating climate change, but again, they do so from a pedagogical perspective, not an operational one.

Schools’ climate footprint

To be sure, climate education is, as UNESCO says, “central and critical” to any international response to climate change. (For more on what climate education could look like in the U.S., I refer you to a 2019 Kappan piece by Marcelo Suárez-Orozco and V. Ram Ramanathan.) But why stop there? K-12 education in the U.S. has a massive footprint, including nearly 41,000 school buses, 130,000 schools, and (the COVID era notwithstanding) millions of students, teachers, and staff who travel to those schools and back home every day.

Jonathan Klein, cofounder of the nonprofit group UndauntedK12, points out, “As the second largest form of public infrastructure, K-12 schools offer a sizable opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The time is right for the nation’s public schools to make an equitable transition to net-zero carbon emissions” (personal communication, February 2021). An example of such a transition would be the Biden administration’s proposal to have all American-made buses — starting with school buses — achieve zero emission by 2030. Of course, the costs and complications of doing this will be considerable. But if iconic American companies like General Motors can lay out a time line for all of their automobiles to be zero emission by 2035, then why shouldn’t school systems aim for the same goal?

Klein also sees the “dismal state” of many public school buildings as an opportunity to make climate-friendly improvements. And since many of our oldest and most decrepit schools are found in low-income communities, he adds, the rationale for investing in climate-friendly improvements to public schools is not just environmental, it is also about equity. Not only has COVID-19 disproportionately affected Americans from low-income communities of color, but children living in poverty have long suffered sky-high rates of pollution-related illnesses like asthma and lead poisoning. Aging school buildings don’t just lack facilities, technology, and other resources that support learning, but they can also, quite literally, make students and educators sick.

Policy steps to consider

UndauntedK12 has presented the Biden administration with a set of recommendations for investing in a more equitable, clean energy future for K-12 schools, and the group would like to see Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona follow Treasury Secretary Janet Yellin’s lead and name its own climate czar. Further, Klein and other climate-ambitious advocates would like to see school systems leverage COVID-19 relief funds both to protect against the virus and address long-standing social and health-
related inequities.

If there are opportunities for school system leaders to take climate-friendly steps in their efforts to protect students and staff from COVID-19, then why not consider them? For many years, the Sierra Club has called for educators to be more climate-ambitious in their approach to energy use and behavior. Since 2006, for instance, the organization has ranked colleges according to their “eco bona fides and environmental commitments” (O’Reilly, 2020). And, like UndauntedK12, the organization is also pushing for school districts to use clean energy to power their buildings and facilities.

Given strong federal leadership around climate action and a clearer sense of the potential cost savings, state and local leaders should be able to see the long-term benefits of investing in greener schools. For example, recent COVID-19 mitigation guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2021) highlights technology, water systems, food services, and ventilation as important components of a clean and healthy facility. These are the very areas that organizations like UndauntedK12 and the Sierra Club recommend upgrading or modernizing in ways that are climate-ambitious.

Before the pandemic, some federal leaders were pushing hard for a major investment in school infrastructure. Rep. Robert C. (Bobby) Scott (D-VA.) first introduced the Rebuild America’s Schools Act in January 2019, and he brought forward a new version of the bill (now called the Reopen and Rebuild America’s Schools Act of 2021) earlier this year. (Scott is now the chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor.) The bill’s fact sheet cites a June 2020 report from the General Accounting Office (GAO), which found that 54% of the nation’s school districts need to replace or update major systems in more than half their buildings. In many districts, these upgrades need to focus on HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) systems, which are central to COVID-19 mitigation efforts. The proposed legislation would invest $100 billion in grants and $30 billion in bond authority to address the needs of high-poverty schools with facilities that are putting students and staff at risk. Other provisions include job creation programs, data systems to support the monitoring of school facilities, and access to high-speed broadband.

As communities around the country emerge from the darkness of the pandemic, it’s hard to imagine education leaders will have the will, let alone the stamina, to make the case for conservation and sustainability. At the moment, it may be a waste of time to ask them to focus on anything other than figuring out how to reopen their schools safely. But it won’t be long before they can turn their attention to other priorities. And after yet another season of erratic and unpredictable weather, they may have no choice.

As the saying goes, the first step in addressing a problem is admitting that you have one. System leaders who have already felt the pain of climate change understand that adequate planning and preparation require them to be not just reactive but also proactive. Unfortunately, natural disasters and global pandemics no longer fall into the category of “rare occurrences.” Knowing that, system leaders need to consider what infrastructure improvements can help them better manage the effects of the next disaster, and the ones that will inevitably follow. Those kind of
forward-thinking steps, however, require both guidance and financial support, and with state and local budgets strapped after a year of managing COVID-19, their ever-growing crisis management to-do list may take a little longer to complete.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2021, February). Operational strategy for K-12 schools through phased mitigation. www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/operation-strategy.html

O’Reilly, K. (2020, September 27). The top 20 coolest schools 2020. Sierra. www.sierraclub.org/sierra/cool-schools-2020/top-20-coolest-schools-2020

Suárez-Orozco, M. & Ramanathan, V.R. (2019, November 12). Our students must be prepared to take on climate change. Phi Delta Kappan.

United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. (n.d.). What UNESCO does on education for sustainable development. https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-development/what-UNESCO-does