The Green Parent

Does your child’s school need some help going green? That help may be coming in the form of federal dollars. Last week, the House passed the 21st Century Green High-Preforming Public Schools Facilities Act which would earmark $6.4 billion for eco-friendly projects that help modernize public school facilities. The projects would have to meet to criteria for building construction and/or energy efficiency of one of these programs:

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System
Energy Star
Collaborative For High Performance Schools

Green schools save tons of money over the years on stuff like energy, water, trash removal, sewage treatment, landscaping…money that can go into more important things like smaller class sizes and improved academic programs. And study after study shows that green school projects such as planting gardens, reducing cafeteria waste, and using eco-friendly cleaning products provide a healthier learning environment which improves morale, minimizing teacher sick days and boosting student’s test scores.

So what can you do to support this initiative? The green schools bill is headed to Senate next, so now would be a good time to f

ind your Senator on this list (organized alphabetically by state) and get in touch.