Many young people want their schools to help prepare them to face the climate crisis.
So students in the Sunrise Movement have been lobbying their local school boards across the country to pass a Green New Deal for Schools. In the Boulder Valley School District in Colorado, they recently celebrated a win.
Student activist Tilly Testa says the new resolution requires the district to implement clean energy initiatives, include climate change in the curriculum, and create disaster plans.
Testa: “We want students to have climate disaster plans, so when a climate disaster strikes, like the Marshall or NCAR fire that recently evacuated our community, students feel prepared and safe and know what to do.”
To push for the resolution, students went to school board meetings and helped draft the language. Fellow organizer Rylan Neumann says that when the board voted last November, around 60 people showed up in support.
Neumann: “It was really powerful to see that many students and parents and even some teachers showing up in support of this resolution on that day. And it really showed how powerful we are as young people to make change in our communities.”
Testa says students in schools nationwide are organizing to pass their own versions of a Green New Deal.
Testa: “So it’s really exciting to see how this one win is going to move throughout the United States.”
Reporting credit: Shannon Young/ChavoBart Digital Media