Back in June 2020, the New Jersey State Board of Education adopted an initiative developed by New Jersey First Lady Tammy Murphy to make the state the first in the country to incorporate climate change education into all New Jersey public schools.

“These new standards will give our children the tools necessary to combat the effects of climate change,” Ms. Murphy said. “We are building the world’s next generation of climate literate leaders, including policymakers, historians, teachers, and more, who will discover new ways to address the climate crisis.”

Originally scheduled to be implemented in September 2021, but delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, this fall marks the first time that schools across New Jersey have been able to teach the new standards developed over the past two years.

The New Jersey Student Learning Standards (NJSLS), which set a foundation from which public-school districts across the state to build coherent curriculum, provides language that requires climate change be taught across seven areas:

• 21st century life and careers
• Comprehensive health and physical education
• Science
• Social studies
• Technology
• Visual and performing arts
• World languages

The goals with these standards and the newly developed curriculum are to help students understand how and why climate change is happening, as well as the impacts it will have on communities across the globe. According to a report put out by elementary science education professor at The College of New Jersey, Lauren Madden, the standards will also include discussion of the effects climate change will have on immigrant communities and people of color.

Assemblyman James Kennedy said, “By incorporating climate change education into the K-12 learning standards, we are providing our students with a meaningful understanding of how human behavior and other factors impact the planet.”

“Once again, New Jersey is setting an example for the nation when it comes to preparing students to be informed, engaged citizens because of our diverse and inclusive standards and curriculum,” said president of the New Jersey Education Association Sean M. Spiller. “Few issues will have more impact on this generation of students throughout their lives than climate change. What they learn in school starting this year will help prepare them to address this challenging issue now and in the future. We commend First Lady Tammy Murphy for her relentless advocacy on this issue and applaud the Murphy Administration for seeing this through to implementation.”

Another factor to consider with this new curriculum is green jobs. Officials in New Jersey, including the Governor himself, hope that the lessons students will be learning will help propel them in to green job marketplace. ”Our children are our future, and the lessons New Jersey students will learn with this new curriculum will bring us one step closer to building our green economy and reaching an sustaining 100 percent clean energy in New Jersey by 2050,” said Governor Phil Murphy.

While New Jersey is setting a precedent, states like New York continue to stay behind. Assembly Bill 2325 and Senate Bill 1081, which died in committee (along with various other climate change education bills introduced) when the 2021-2022 New York Legislature session ended back in June, would have required the state to create an environmental curriculum across multiple subjects such as history, health, and math, to be taught in public schools across New York State.

New York and other states have the chance to follow New Jersey’s lead in the charge to educate the next generation on issues such as this. Waterfront Alliance’s own Estuary Explorers program already helps guide teacher in how to teach topics around climate change. And with more state support in the form of policy around education, we can help support more teachers across New York City and New Jersey.

Sources:
https://www.nj.gov/governor/news/news/562022/20220906a.shtml
https://www.nj.com/education/2022/09/climate-change-must-now-be-taught-to-nj-students-what-will-new-curriculum-look-like.html
https://www.nj.gov/education/cccs/2020/
https://www.njsba.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/climate-change-ed-online-2-2.pdf
https://ncse.ngo/climate-change-legislation-dies-new-york#:~:text=When%20the%202021%2D2022%20session,education%20bills%20died%20in%20committee.m