Call to Action: Speak Up for the Office of EE

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 next week. 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

Budget: https://webservices.ncleg.gov/ViewDocSiteFile/99061

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.