High school students launch ‘Green New Deal for Schools Campaign’

Student organizers at 50 different high schools across the country are banding together to launch the “Green New Deal for Schools Campaign.” 

The hope of the campaign is to get district-wide climate policies enacted, with the ultimate goal of obtaining federal legislation to change schools across the country. 

The campaign has been set up by the Sunrise Movement, a youth climate justice organization that says this initiative is “in response to attacks from the Right on the American education system.”

“The Green New Deal for Schools will transform public schools in America to face the climate crisis and ensure all students receive safe and high-quality education – no matter their zip code or the color of their skin,” said 17-year-old Adah Crandall, one of the leaders of the campaign. “Our generation is on the front lines of this fight and it’s time for our school districts to take real action.”

The group is demanding school buildings and buses to run on 100 percent clean energy, free and healthy lunches, pathways to green jobs, climate disaster plans and curriculum about climate justice. 

The Sunrise Movement says they had a multi-week summer training camp to teach hundreds of high schoolers how to organize, run campaigns in schools and protest. 

“The Republican Party knows that they don’t have the youth vote,” said Aster Chau, another organizer for the campaign from Pennsylvania. “They’ve spent the last few years antagonizing students and teachers — eroding trust in public education — in order to distract from all of the problems they’ve created in our society. Today, we say no more — these are our schools and our futures.”