Call to Action: Speak Up for the Office of EE
- May 16
- 5 min read
Updated: Jun 20
NOTE: This blog post is time-sensitive and may not be applicable at the time of reading. A huge THANK YOU to the several members of the EE community for helping bring all of this information together.
Questions, comments, and concerns can be directed to Will Freund, EENC Board President, will@eenc.org.
FRIDAY, JUNE 20 UPDATE: Over 40 organizations have now signed the letter in support of funding for the Office of Environmental Education. Thank you! Your voices, both individually and at an organizational level, are and will make a difference.
We are getting reports that the NC General Assembly and the budget negotiations are at a stalemate, and will be put on pause until after the July 4th holiday break. Although the NC House's version of the budget did include funding for the Office of EE, the NC Senate still needs to align its version of the budget for it to be voted on and sent to Governor Stein. With that, EENC will hold off on sending the signed organizational letters until deliberation resumes and representatives are in their offices to receive and respond to our messages.
If you have not done so yet, and have the capacity to do so, we encourage you to reach out to your NC House representatives and THANK them for ensuring funding for the Office of EE. We asked them to act, they did, and now we need to thank them for listening to us. Here is the link to the spreadsheet again, if you need it, with contact information for your representatives in the NC General Assembly.
If you want more updates in your email on this issue, we encourage you to sign up for the NC-EE listserv, where members of our community have shared more updates. This list is open to anyone with an interest in environmental education in North Carolina. It is moderated by the N.C. Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs. Posts for environmental education and workshops, job opportunities, new resources, programs, and environmental education conferences and events are welcome.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4 UPDATE: EENC has launched an organizational sign-on letter advocating for financial support of the Office of EE that will be sent to members of the NC Senate.
After so many individuals have spoken up, we want to make sure that the organizations in North Carolina have a chance to make their voices heard!
If your organization would like to participate in this important effort to advocate for funding for the Office of EE, please follow the link below to fill out the Google Form and add your organization to the list of signatories.
Although we appreciate the support of individuals, please note that we are collecting signatures from organizational signatures only for this effort. The deadline to add your organization to this letter is next Wednesday, June 11th, 2025.
You can read the full text of the letter by clicking here.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 21 UPDATE: Tuesday afternoon, the House put forth a revised budget that reinstates "...all functions, powers, and operations" of the Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs under the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. You can read all about it here on page 316.
This is really good news, but our work is not done!
1. We need to THANK the representatives that made this happen. Advocacy must go both ways... the representatives heard the concerns and took a positive action for our EE community - so we need to show our appreciation before Thursday afternoon.
Wednesday and Thursday: Call/Email (or both!) all the people you reached out to and express your sincere thanks for reinstating the Office of Environmental Education in the budget. Here is the link to the spreadsheet again if you need it.
Didn't feel comfortable calling and expressing your concerns or didn't have time earlier this week to make a call or send an email? Consider taking a few moments to express your thank you for their support!
2. Remember, the Office of EE is NOT in the Senate budget, so we will need to come out in force again to let our state senators know why they should support the office. Keep an out for the next call to action that will probably occur for the first week of June. The House/Senate will most likely put forth consensus members for each chamber that will iron out any details before voting on a final budget appropriations bill to be signed by the Governor. By law, this must occur by June 15.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16 UPDATE: This is an update and call for action on the state budget funding situation concerning the removal of funding for the North Carolina Office of Environmental Education and Public Affairs from the currently proposed North Carolina House budget set to be voted on the week of May 19th. We need you to speak up for the Office of EE and show how important and impactful their work is in your work, your community, and around the state.
Why is this important?
Environmental education empowers students to understand and address the pressing environmental challenges of our time. The Office of Environmental Education manages our state's EE Certification program, provides an email Listserv resource, hosts an environmental education job board, the Lunchtime Discovery series, the annual Nonformal Educators meeting in partnership with the Department of Public Instruction, maintains a website that serves as a clearinghouse for all the programs and EE opportunities across the state, and much more. It’s a small investment with a massive impact. Eliminating this office would undermine decades of progress in fostering an informed and engaged citizenry.
The Office of Environmental Education is a critical partner for EENC and so many other organizations and individuals across the state and throughout the region. We need YOU as someone who cares about the future of environmental education and the importance of the work that the Office of EE does, to speak up and contact your elected officials to tell them to ensure funding for this Office now and in the future.
Below, you will find a list of links to documents, committees, and the budget related to the upcoming NC House and Senate deliberations. These committees will be meeting early next week (starting Monday, May 19) to start budget negotiations. The key committees are linked below. The next few days will be a critical timeframe for hearing from constituents, LIKE YOU!
We have heard from a legislative liaison, and this is what they had to share:
It is urgent that people actively reach out to the legislative members of the committees we have mentioned below, because if they hear from hundreds of people, the issue will have to be taken up for discussion in committee. It is also imperative that people reach out to the Speaker of the House, Representative Destin Hall, and the President Pro Tem, Senator Phil Berger.
All Documents:
North Carolina General Assembly (HOUSE) - Appropriations, Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources House Standing Committee
Committees:
House Committee on Appropriations - https://www.ncleg.gov/Committees/CommitteeInfo/HouseStanding/6
Senate Committee on Appropriations/Base Budget Standing - https://www.ncleg.gov/Committees/CommitteeInfo/SenateStanding/136
Senate Committee on Appropriations on Agriculture, Natural, and Economic Resources - https://www.ncleg.gov/Committees/CommitteeInfo/SenateStanding/145
House Appropriations Committee on Agriculture and Natural and Economic Resources - https://www.ncleg.gov/Committees/CommitteeInfo/HouseStanding/12 - FOCUS ON COMMITTEE CHAIRS
If you aren't certain who your representative is, visit this website and enter your address. Just be certain you have NC HOUSE selected. Know who your representative is, but not their contact information? Check out this spreadsheet with contact information for the four key committees that people need to reach out to, and also the Speaker of the House and the House Pro Tem.
EENC has created this email template you can use for your communications.
We have faced this challenge before - in 2011 and in 2017 - and work from the EE Community and supporters saved this vital office, and we can do it again!
For more context, you can read our previous blog post related to this issue: Unless: Your Voice Can Make A Difference for EE in North Carolina.
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