Order Code 97-97
Updated August 24, 2007
National Environmental Education Act of
1990: Overview, Implementation, and
Issues for Congress
David M. Bearden
Specialist in Environmental Policy
Resources, Science, and Industry Division
Summary
The role of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in supporting
environmental education has been an ongoing issue. For nearly two decades, EPA has
been the primary federal agency responsible for assisting schools in improving the
quality of environmental education. The National Environmental Education Act of 1990
(P.L. 101-619) established a program within EPA to award grants for educating
elementary and secondary school students and training teachers in environmental
subjects, to support fellowships for post-secondary students, and to fund other related
activities. The Administration has proposed to eliminate this program each year since
FY2003, but Congress has continued its funding. Although the President’s FY2008
budget request for EPA did not include any funding for the program, it did include $1
million for unspecified environmental education activities. Whether those activities
would continue certain aspects of the existing program is unclear. As passed by the
House, the FY2008 Interior appropriations bill (H.R. 2643, H.Rept. 110-187) would
provide $9 million to continue the existing program, similar to past funding levels. The
Senate Appropriations Committee recommended the same amount in reporting its
version of the bill (S. 1696, S.Rept. 110-91). The reauthorization of the program also
has been an issue, as the original funding authorization expired at the end of FY1996.
Legislation to reauthorize EPA’s program has not been introduced in the 110th Congress,
but two bills (H.R. 3036 and S. 1981) would authorize a new grant program in the
Department of Education to expand the federal role in environmental education.
Introduction
The Environmental Education Act of 1970 (P.L. 91-516) established an Office of
Environmental Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare to award
grants for developing environmental curricula and training teachers. Congress moved the
office to the newly formed Department of Education in 1979. However, in response to
the Reagan Administration’s efforts to transfer the federal role in many programs to the
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states, Congress eliminated the Office of Environmental Education in 1981. Several years
later, the 101st Congress enacted the National Environmental Education Act of 1990 (P.L.
101-619) to renew the federal role in environmental education and reestablish an office
of environmental education within EPA. In the law’s findings, the 101st Congress stated
that existing federal programs to educate the public about environmental problems and
train environmental professionals were inadequate at that time and that increasing the
federal role in this area was therefore necessary.
P.L. 101-619 authorizes EPA to work with educational institutions, nonprofit
organizations, the private sector, tribal governments, and state and local environmental
agencies to educate the public about environmental problems and encourage students to
pursue environmental careers. Environmental education involves learning ecological
concepts to understand the relation between human behavior and environmental quality,
and developing the knowledge and skills to analyze environmental problems and create
solutions. The goal of EPA’s environmental education program is to increase public
knowledge about environmental issues and provide the public with the skills necessary
to make informed decisions and take responsible actions to protect the environment. The
program supports activities to achieve these goals primarily through the awarding of
grants. Since the beginning of the program in FY1992, EPA has awarded grants for
environmental education projects in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and
U.S. territories for educating elementary and secondary school students, training teachers,
purchasing textbooks, developing curricula, and other educational activities.
This report summarizes major provisions of the National Environmental Education
Act of 1990, discusses appropriations for programs authorized in that statute, examines
the implementation of these programs, and analyzes key issues and relevant legislation.
Appropriations
The original funding authorization for EPA’s environmental education program
expired at the end of FY1996. However, Congress has continued to fund the program
since then without enacting reauthorizing legislation, appropriating around $9 million
annually in recent years. Early in its first session, the 110th Congress completed action on
FY2007 appropriations for EPA and many other federal agencies with the enactment of
the Revised Continuing Appropriations Resolution for FY2007 (P.L. 110-5, H.J.Res. 20).
However, the law did not specify a dollar amount for many individual agency activities,
including EPA’s environmental education program. P.L. 110-5 generally provided
funding at the same level as enacted for FY2006, unless otherwise specified in the law.
However, agencies had discretion to determine funding levels for many activities within
their statutory accounts, such as EPA’s environmental education program.
Absent specific dollar amounts for most programs and activities, P.L. 110-5 required
the federal departments and agencies funded in that law to submit their allocations of
funding to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees within 30 days of
enactment. EPA reported its funding allocations in mid-March in its FY2007 Operating
Plan. EPA’s plan indicated that the agency allocated $5.6 million for the environmental
education program, $3.3 million less than the $8.9 million provided for FY2006. The
amount EPA allocated for FY2007 also is lower than what Congress originally considered
in the 109th Congress. The House had proposed $9 million in passing the Interior,
Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill for FY2007 (H.R. 5386, H.Rept.
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109-465), and the Senate Appropriations Committee had proposed $7 million in reporting
its version of the bill (S.Rept. 109-275).
While funding for the program has continued, the Administration has proposed to
eliminate its funding each year since FY2003. The President’s FY2008 budget request
did not include any funding for the program either, but EPA’s budget justification did
include $1 million for unspecified environmental education activities. It is unclear from
the agency’s justification as to what those activities would entail, and whether those
activities would replace or continue a portion of the existing program’s functions. In its
consideration of appropriations for FY2008, Congress has again opposed the
Administration’s proposal to terminate the program. The House proposed $9 million to
continue the program in passing the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
appropriations bill for FY2008 (H.R. 2643, H.Rept. 110-187) on June 27, 2007. The
Senate Appropriations Committee also recommended $9 million to continue the program
in reporting its version of the bill (S. 1696, S.Rept. 110-91) on June 26, 2007.
The Administration has used the environmental education program’s performance
rating by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as the main justification for its
recurring proposal to eliminate the program’s funding. OMB has repeatedly given the
program a “Results Not Demonstrated” rating as part of its annual government-wide
assessment of federal programs with its Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). OMB
gave the program the same PART rating again in the President’s FY2008 budget request.
OMB asserts that the absence of performance metrics for grant activities supported by the
environmental education program makes it difficult to determine whether the program is
achieving its goal of improving the quality of environmental education.
Opponents of the Administration’s proposal to eliminate the program’s funding have
noted that there are long-standing disagreements among educators about how to evaluate
the quality of education, and that the lack of performance metrics for educational
activities is not unique to EPA’s environmental education program. Such critics have
countered OMB’s characterization of the program’s effectiveness by arguing that grant
awards have had a national impact with a small amount of funding relative to EPA’s total
budget. The activities supported by these grants also have generated significant state and
local support. In response, Congress has continued the program’s funding each year.
Overview and Implementation
The National Environmental Education Act authorizes EPA to award grants for
developing environmental curricula and training teachers, support fellowships to
encourage the pursuit of environmental professions, and select individuals for
environmental awards. EPA also consults with the National Environmental Education
Advisory Council and the Federal Task Force on Environmental Education in conducting
the above activities and coordinating its efforts with related federal programs. The act
also established a nonprofit foundation to encourage cooperation between the public and
private sectors to support environmental education. Each activity is discussed below.1
1 For more information, see EPA’s website at [http://www.epa.gov/enviroed].
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Office of Environmental Education. Section 4 of the act directed EPA to
establish an “office” of environmental education to implement programs authorized under
the act and to coordinate its activities with related federal programs. EPA originally
established an Office of Environmental Education within the Office of Public Affairs to
perform these functions. The agency has since reorganized these functions into an
Environmental Education Division within the Office of Children’s Health Protection and
Environmental Education.
Environmental Education and Training Program. EPA developed the
Environmental Education and Training Program to train education professionals to
develop and teach environmental curricula. Section 5 of the act directs EPA to award an
annual grant to a higher educational institution or nonprofit organization to operate the
program under a multiple-year agreement. The act requires EPA to reserve 25% of the
annual funding for its environmental education program to support the Environmental
Education and Training Program. Teachers, administrators, and related staff of
educational institutions as well as staff of state and local environmental agencies, tribal
governments, and nonprofit organizations are eligible to participate. The University of
Wisconsin at Stevens Point has been implementing this training program, under
agreement with EPA, since October 2000.2
Environmental Education Grants. The Environmental Education Grant
Program supports activities that would educate elementary and secondary school students,
train teachers, increase understanding of environmental issues, and accomplish related
goals. Educational institutions, state and local agencies, tribal governments, and nonprofit
organizations are eligible to apply for these grants. Section 6 of the act requires EPA to
reserve 38% of the environmental education program’s annual funding to support these
grants. The act limits a single grant to $250,000, and requires EPA to award 25% of the
grants for amounts of $5,000 or less, to ensure a greater number of grant awards among
recipients. In practice, EPA reports that few grant awards exceed $100,000 and that over
75% of the grants are for less than $15,000. The act requires each grant recipient to
provide at least 25% of a project’s costs in matching funds.
EPA reports that it has awarded $40.6 million in grants since FY1992 for nearly
3,200 environmental education projects in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S.
territories, of which $2.7 million was awarded with FY2006 funds.3 EPA reports that
grant recipients have exceeded matching funds requirements, providing at least $1 for
every $3 awarded by EPA, underscoring the importance of these activities to school
districts and communities. The competition for these grants has been fairly stiff. In
recent years, EPA has had the resources to award grants to approximately 30% of those
who applied for smaller grants issued by its regional offices, and to less than 10% of those
who applied for larger grants issued by its headquarters office.
EPA has decided not to accept new environmental education grant proposals at this
time because of reduced and delayed funding in FY2007. Rather, EPA plans to select a
limited number of proposals from those received in response to its FY2006 grant
solicitation notice. EPA indicates that it will select and fund additional grants with
2 For more information, see the University’s website at [http://www.eetap.org].
3 For more information, see EPA’s website at [http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants/index.html].
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limited FY2007 funds from the most highly qualified and highly scored proposals that
were not funded in the FY2006 cycle. EPA anticipates fewer grant awards in FY2007
because of the reduction in funding for the program. The agency plans to post another
grant solicitation notice to receive new grant proposals in the future, if Congress enacts
funding for FY2008.4
Environmental Fellowships. With authority provided in Section 7 of the act,
EPA administers the National Network for Environmental Management Studies to
encourage post-secondary students to pursue environmental careers. Students work with
an environmental professional at EPA on a specific project or conduct university research
under EPA’s direction. In recent years, EPA has awarded approximately 40 fellowships
annually to students at more than 400 participating universities.
Environmental Education Awards. EPA administers the Presidential
Environmental Youth Awards Program to recognize outstanding projects that promote
local environmental awareness. Elementary and high school students are eligible to
compete annually to receive these awards from the EPA regional offices. The award
recipients receive national recognition from the President or Vice President of the United
States and the EPA Administrator. Section 8 of the act also created four national awards
to recognize outstanding contributions to environmental education and training. EPA
announced the first recipients in 1993. The awards commemorate Theodore Roosevelt
for teaching, Henry David Thoreau for literature, Rachael Carson for communications
media, and Gifford Pinchot for natural resources management.
Environmental Education Advisory Council and Federal Task Force on
Environmental Education. EPA established a National Environmental Education
Advisory Council and a Federal Task Force on Environmental Education under Section
9 of the act. The council consists of members representing a diverse range of public and
private expertise in environmental education and training. The council consults with EPA
and reports to Congress periodically on the quality of environmental education, the
implementation of the act, and its recommendations to improve environmental education
and training. The council’s most recent report was released in 2005.5 The task force
coordinates EPA’s environmental education and training activities with related federal
programs. EPA chairs the task force, and its members have included representatives from
the Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, and
Interior, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, and the National Science Foundation.
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation. The
National Environmental Education and Training Foundation encourages cooperation
between the public and private sectors to support environmental education and training.6
Section 10 of the act established the foundation as a private, nonprofit organization with
4 For more information on the status of environmental education grants, see EPA’s website at
[http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/grants.html#alert].
5 For the full text of the Council’s 2005 report on the quality of environmental education, see
EPA’s website at [http://www.epa.gov/enviroed/pdf/reporttocongress2005.pdf].
6 For more information, see the Foundation’s website at [http://www.neefusa.org/index.htm].
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a board of 13 directors responsible for ensuring that its activities adhere to EPA’s policies.
The foundation operates several priority programs, including those that focus on public
health and the environment, “green” business, environmental education at the K-12 level,
and weather and the environment.
The foundation also awards competitive challenge grants to encourage innovative
activities in environmental education and presents National Environmental Education
Achievement Awards to honor outstanding and scientifically accurate environmental
education programs. Additionally, the foundation supports annual research projects
which examine the public’s perception, awareness, and action regarding the environment,
pollution control regulations, and personal responsibility. The act requires EPA to reserve
10% of the environmental education program’s annual funding to award a noncompetitive
grant to help support the foundation’s activities.
Issues for Congress and Relevant Legislation
Although Members of Congress have broadly supported the role of the federal
government in environmental education on a bipartisan basis, there has been continuing
controversy at the local level over its role in the classroom. There appears to be general
consensus that educating students in the ecological sciences and examining the potential
impacts of human behavior on the environment is appropriate for instruction. However,
some critics argue that certain textbooks and curricula misinform students by advocating
specific measures to address environmental problems, or by presenting unbalanced or
scientifically inaccurate data.
In response, EPA has issued guidelines specifying that the environmental education
grants it awards cannot be used for projects that would recommend a specific course of
action or advocate a particular viewpoint, and that activities must be based on “objective
and scientifically sound information” to be eligible for funding. However, the National
Environmental Education Act does not include requirements to insure that activities
funded by EPA adhere to these guidelines. Whether to include such requirements in
federal statute has been a prominent consideration in past debate over the reauthorization
of the act. Legislation to reauthorize funding for EPA’s environmental education program
was considered, but not enacted, in each Congress from the 104th to the 107th.
Reauthorizing legislation has not been introduced in the 110th Congress so far.
Interest in the federal government’s role in environmental education also has become
broader in conjunction with a desire by some for improved understanding of complex
environmental issues affecting human health, sustainability of natural resources,
biological diversity, and other societal objectives. The complexity of such issues, and the
ability of schools to address them, have motivated some educators to question whether
EPA’s program can ensure the quality of environmental education, considering its size
and funding. Whether EPA or other federal agencies should play a more prominent role
in environmental education is a growing issue. In the 110th Congress, at least two bills
would expand the federal role in environmental education. As introduced, H.R. 3036 and
S. 1981 would authorize $100 million annually from FY2008 through FY2012 for the
Department of Education to award grants that would promote environmental education
in elementary and secondary schools. Both bills also would require states to develop
plans to improve the “environmental literacy” of elementary and secondary school
students, as a condition of receiving certain federal education funds.