Our Campaigns

The Campaign for Environmental Literacy coordinates various advocacy campaigns designed to restore or expand the federal investment in environmental education (EE). Our first two campaigns in 2005 successfully restored $15 million in funding for the only two federal grant-making programs specified for environmental literacy. 
Since 2005, CEL has helped to:

• Restore a total of $56 million in EE funding cuts 
• Increase this amount by  $11 million for a total of $67 million 
• Secure passage in the House and introduce in the Senate a $50 million higher education funding program (HESA) that has a good chance of passage
• Introduce in both the House and Senate a new $100 million+ k-12 environmental education bill (NCLI) which could achieve passage in 2009

For further information on these campaigns, click on the links below (as the status of these campaigns changes on a regular basis, please check our latest updates on the Campaign News page):

• The Higher Education Sustainability Act
• EE and Reauthorization of No Child Left Behind
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Education 
• The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Office of Environmental Education

While our efforts can not guarantee that funding cuts will be restored or bills passed, we can guarantee that they will likely NOT be restored or passed if we do not speak up. Most legislators simply will not vote favorably on environmental education if they do not hear loudly from the community. And more importantly, our success to date proves that your emails, letters, and calls do indeed have a big impact.

So please remember to visit our action center and make your voice heard on the funding issues that are important to our community. Your contribution is an essential means of strengthening our collective voice! If we don't speak up for ourselves, who will?