El Paso Zoo supports No Child Left Inside Act

The El Paso Zoo is joining accredited zoos across the country and hundreds of other organizations in helping to gain support for a very important environmental education initiative. You may have heard of No Child Left Behind.. This is different. The No Child Left Inside Act (S.1981) will help to make outdoor environmental education a part of every students' public school experience. The problem is that across the country, teachers have been forced to cut back on the time they can devote to teach young people about environmental education, because of testing requirements. A complete education should include information and hands-on learning about the natural environment and the enormous challenges it faces.

• Congress is reauthorizing the No Child Left Behind law.

• No Child Left Behind and its emphasis on testing has made it hard for teachers to devote adequate time to environmental education.

• There is inadequate funding for environmental education, both at the state and federal levels.

Why should we care? Environmental education for children is critical now because of the complex environmental challenges confronting the nation and world. We teach this everyday at the El Paso Zoo with our Sea Lion and Elephant talks.

What will the No Child Left Inside Act do? Increase funding for environmental education focusing on teacher training and capacity building. Give states new incentives to create environmental literacy plans to make sure graduates understand the environment. The legislation will help us fulfill our obligation to educate children about the environment to help them be good stewards and to inspire them to help find solutions to the issues confronting us. We are urging our local members of Congress to support environmental education in the No Child Left Behind reauthorization.

Learn more about the No Child Left Inside Act (S.1981) at www.eenclb.org.