
{"id":18399,"date":"2011-05-26T08:21:35","date_gmt":"2011-05-26T12:21:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=18399"},"modified":"2011-05-26T08:21:35","modified_gmt":"2011-05-26T12:21:35","slug":"letter-don%e2%80%99t-cut-environmental-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2011\/05\/26\/letter-don%e2%80%99t-cut-environmental-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cut environmental education"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Geographically speaking, North Carolina is one of the most diverse and beautiful states in the union. Bordered by mountains in the west and the ocean on the east, North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diverse ecosystems are home to many rare plants and animals. The Venus flytrap, sea turtles and the bald eagle are native to North Carolina, and are the reason many people visit. Environmental education is essential to preserving North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s diverse habitats.<\/p>\n<p>As the state legislature works on creating a budget for next year, they have proposed many cuts to the state\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Department of Environment and Natural Resources. While many of the cuts are aimed at regulatory functions, there are also proposed reductions to the Office of Environmental Education. The House of Representatives\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 budget cuts the current staff of five down to two positions. This cut has been overshadowed by the larger changes thus far, but North Carolina\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s citizens should know the decisions being made on their behalf.<\/p>\n<p>A savings of $221,000 in the state budget is in essence cutting that amount in grants and in-kind support the office brings in annually to fund professional-development programs for educators, adult education, job creation and the 200 Environmental Education Centers in the state.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of Environmental Education has spent more than a decade working to become a communication tool for educators, both formal and non-formal, to find curriculum, educational events, professional development, resources and publications. It is a critical economic resource to educators at a time when budgets and teachers are being slashed across the state.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Making the investment in a well-informed citizenry can be a cost-effective alternative to environmental regulation.\u00c2\u00a0It has also been identified as a critical 21st century skill that will enable us to be competitive in a global economy while ensuring that our communities have clean water and air.<\/p>\n<p>Julianna Parks<br \/>\n<em>Orange County<br \/>\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Geographically speaking, North Carolina is one of the most diverse and beautiful states in the union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18399","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18399","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18399"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18399\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18473,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18399\/revisions\/18473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18399"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18399"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18399"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}