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FEATURED ARTICLE
MARYLAND CAN LEAD THE WAY | by John B. King, Jr.John B. King, Jr. is the former U.S. Secretary of Education under President Obama, co-chair of the Aspen Institute K-12 Climate Action Commission, founder of Strong Future Maryland, and a Montgomery County public school parent.
As an educator and a father of two teenage daughters, I worry a lot about the world we are leaving our young people — a world deeply damaged by our reliance on fossil fuels. And the question we all must ask is: will we take the actions today to ensure a healthy beautiful Earth for us, our children, and their children?
The negative impacts of climate change will infiltrate every part of our life from the air we breathe, to what we eat, to where we live. These negative impacts will affect everyone but will disproportionately impact communities of color, as communities of color already breathe dirtier air, experience higher levels of food insecurity, and live in areas more susceptible to flooding. Just recently, UNICEF estimated one billion children around the world are at “extremely high risk” of being negatively impacted by climate change.
We must listen to youth, across the country and the world, who are demanding systemic change and use all the tools at our disposal to take a whole-of-society approach to address climate change. Including the education sector in this work can help us build lasting change to empower today’s students to advance a more sustainable, resilient, and equitable future.
In Maryland, we can lead the way in advancing lasting sustainability by supporting our 1,400+ public schools serving about 900,000+ students in moving toward climate action, solutions, and environmental justice. Public schools are a foundational public responsibility and need policy support to reduce their environmental impact and build resilience in the face of climate change. Like all systems, energy and transportation significantly contribute to the environmental footprint for schools.
Currently, energy costs are among the highest costs for school districts outside of personnel, but they don’t have to be. Increasingly, schools across the country are utilizing solar energy, geothermal heating and cooling, energy education, adaptive lighting systems, and more to reduce their energy overhead as well as their environmental impact. The Net Zero Energy Schools Program in Maryland has built three net-zero energy schools — schools that produce as much energy as they consume — which is a promising start. And we have an opportunity to support all our schools in this transition.
Schools in low-income communities must be prioritized in this work as they are more likely to have environmental hazards, poor ventilation, and outdated infrastructure. Just this past June when we experienced a heat wave, schools across Baltimore were forced to close because of outdated infrastructure with insufficient air conditioning. While a simple, long overdue solution may be adding air conditioning to these buildings, that approach alone fails to take into consideration the environmental impact. Taking a whole-of-society approach, we must consider alternatives to reduce heat burdens on communities. This includes exploring the most sustainable and efficient technologies available, as well as assessing the feasibility of options like green roofs or green schoolyards which also help decrease community heat, increase green space and clean air, build community resilience, and provide learning opportunities for students.
With over 7,000 school buses on the road in our state, we will need to work to transition our fleet from primarily diesel to electric school buses. Electric school buses are better for the environment and students’ health and cost less to operate and maintain after the upfront cost of the bus. In Montgomery County, Highland Electric has partnered with the district to transition their 1,400 buses to electric. Highland Electric will pay the excess cost of the electric school buses and lease the buses to the district at a fixed rate. This partnership is the first of its kind in the country.
In this critical moment, as we rebound from the pandemic, we need to rebound with greater resilience and become better prepared to support our communities through the challenges of the future. We know that climate change will cause additional disruptions in the future as heat, extreme weather events and more continue to intensify. In Ellicott City, extreme flash flooding has devastated businesses and taken lives. In Dorchester County, rising sea levels are threatening livelihoods, historical sites, and housing. These threats will continue to get worse over time with climate change.
We must be proactive in helping communities better prepare to support families when faced with disruptions to ensure continued access to food and services. Schools, being in every community, can serve as hubs of resilience. Investing in renewable energy for our school buildings and buses can help communities create microgrids for energy needs, enabling schools to provide emergency services and a place for community members to plug in.
Schools can also help ensure our youth are prepared with the knowledge and skills to tackle future challenges and take advantage of the opportunities to transition to a clean economy. New Jersey became the first state in the nation to integrate climate change standards across the curriculum, and Maryland can come next. Our students can benefit from the opportunity to develop environmental and climate literacy to lead innovative solutions tomorrow. Our students can engage in deeper questions about how our systems permit environmental injustice to help them build a more equitable society. Our career and technical education programs can integrate sustainability and prepare students for success in the clean economy.
Youth across the country, and here in Maryland, have been leading efforts to address climate change and are pushing adults to action. For instance, Baltimore county native, Nadia Nazar, co-founded Zero Hour, a youth-led initiative to advocate for climate justice and a livable planet. It is far past the time for adults in Maryland to step up with bold progressive action as well.
We can build a whole-of-society model to address climate change that focuses on children and youth for other states to follow. If we act now to support our schools toward climate action, we can elevate our environmental and educational policy to reflect the state that we want to be; a state where all communities are healthy, schools provide a quality education, and people can find good, reliable, and innovative green jobs.
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