{"id":806469,"date":"2026-08-08T05:00:20","date_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:00:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806469\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T05:00:20","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T05:00:20","slug":"nc-cuts-environmental-education-office-hundreds-in-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/806469\/","title":{"rendered":"NC cuts environmental education office, hundreds in limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the N.C. Office of Environmental Education<\/a> closes its doors, more than 200 partner organizations will lose the main channel they use to reach teachers and the public, while over 600 educators working toward the state\u2019s environmental education certification will be left in limbo.<\/p>\n

Gov. Josh Stein signed the $34 billion 2026-27 state budget<\/a> on July 7, cutting the $275,000 needed to keep the office running. After an unsuccessful push to restore it through a technical corrections bill<\/a>, the office is now awaiting the official letter notifying it of its termination and expects to formally shut down within two months.<\/p>\n

Created under the Environmental Education Act of 1993<\/a> to centralize various programs and reduce redundancy, the office had survived defunding attempts before in 2011 and 2017.<\/p>\n

This time, its two employees are packing up.<\/p>\n

What the environmental education office does<\/p>\n

The office doesn\u2019t run environmental education programming itself. Instead, it certifies training already provided by partner organizations and operates the listserv, job board and event calendar those groups use to reach teachers directly.<\/p>\n

That role is harder to replace than the office\u2019s small footprint might suggest, said Marty Wiggins, the office\u2019s environmental education program consultant.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll impact the smaller places that really rely on us to promote their programs,\u201d Wiggins said, pointing to county nature centers and small museums.<\/p>\n

Renee Strnad, the Project Learning Tree<\/a> state coordinator housed at N.C. State University Extension Forestry, said the office\u2019s disappearance also severs the connection between environmental educators and the Department of Public Instruction, which keeps them informed on the teaching standards and practices schools expect.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis office of only two people really utilized their resources really well and just leveraged what funds were available by working with all the different state agencies,\u201d Strnad said. \u201cWe\u2019re really struggling with… what\u2019s the bare minimum that we can move forward with?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Strnad Strnad helps teachers from Hawbridge Elementary School in Saxapahaw to determine what Project Learning Tree activities could be used along the river behind their school to connect children with their local environment. Strnad is a North Carolina certified environmental educator. That program was eliminated from the recently passed state budget. Renee Strnad <\/p>\n

Strnad said losing that reach will make the field more fragmented and harder for parents and home-school families to navigate.<\/p>\n

The office also points to concrete outcomes tied to its work, including the state\u2019s high school Earth and Environmental Science requirement and a K-12 Environmental Literacy Plan<\/a> that Wake County\u2019s Lincoln Heights Elementary used to help turn around its performance scores, earning recognition as a top magnet school<\/a> in the country.<\/p>\n

Educators speak up<\/p>\n

Mirren Hill, a middle school science teacher, completed her certification in July 2025. The environmental education certificate requires 200 hours of training<\/a> within four years, including educational events, teaching and a community project.<\/p>\n

Hill said she was already anxious about the office\u2019s funding during a previous defunding attempt that fell short last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat really stressed me out because I was so close,\u201d Hill said. \u201cDon\u2019t tell me they\u2019re gonna take all the hard work that I did and eventually just discount it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The program has certified more than 1,600 educators statewide, with around 600 more currently working toward it. Hill said this year\u2019s cut leaves her thinking about educators earlier in the pipeline.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just feel for the people who were maybe so close, or who have just recently started,\u201d Hill said.<\/p>\n

\"Mirren Mirren Hill is a recently certified environmental educator through the N.C. program. She says the certification helped her get a seasonal job at the N.C. Zoo and her current job as a middle school science teacher. <\/p>\n

Christine Biela, AP Environmental Science teacher at Stuart W. Cramer High School in Gaston County, used the certification program to learn the state\u2019s ecosystems after relocating to North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause I had only recently moved to North Carolina, the certification program helped me discover the incredible natural resources, wildlife and conservation organizations that make North Carolina so unique,\u201d Biela said.<\/p>\n

Despite the funding cut, people have kept signing up. Lisa Tolley, the office\u2019s environmental education program manager, said 15 people have applied since the budget passed.<\/p>\n

Why it was cut<\/p>\n

Tolley was hired shortly after the office was created, in the aftermath of fish kills on the Neuse River that put it on a watch list for endangered rivers. She watched the office grow to a staff of eight before shrinking, over successive budget cuts, to just her and Wiggins.<\/p>\n

Through it all, the office\u2019s own staff say they still don\u2019t know why this cut succeeded where others failed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve asked that question, and we cannot get an answer,\u201d Tolley said.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Pricey Harrison, D-Greensboro, raised the office\u2019s elimination on the House floor during debate over the budget, and said she has fought to protect its funding for years under both Republican and Democratic legislatures.<\/p>\n

Harrison said she suspects some of her Republican colleagues have long viewed the program with suspicion, wrongly perceiving it as an effort to turn students into activists rather than teach them about the environment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s just the idea of educating young people to become environmentalists, even though that\u2019s not exactly what happens,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cThat\u2019s the perception… and I feel like it\u2019s a big mistake.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Jennifer Jennifer Browndorf, a certified N.C. environmental educator and former middle school science teacher, leads educational programming for children at her job working for NC state parks. The Office of Environmental Education, which runs the certification program, was eliminated in the recently passed state budget. North Carolina Office of Environmental Education <\/p>\n

Harrison called the office\u2019s elimination \u201csilly\u201d given how small a share of the funding it represents in the $34 billion budget. She said the office could still be revived when the legislature returns in November, though she considers that unlikely.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re getting a lot of bang for the buck and a lot of happy teachers who participate in the program and a lot of happy students,\u201d Harrison said. \u201cI hope we can restore this.\u201d<\/p>\n

The office\u2019s priority now is finishing certifications for educators who are almost done before it stops operating. Tolley is still reeling from the news.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like being punched in the stomach for me, frankly,\u201d Tolley said. \u201cIt\u2019s heartbreaking.\u201d<\/p>\n

This story was originally published August 7, 2026 at 9:35 AM.<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Luke Bowles<\/a><\/p>\n

The News & Observer<\/p>\n

Luke Bowles covers science for The News & Observer as a Mass Media Fellow with the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He holds a philosophy and cognitive science degree from the University of Georgia. Luke is currently pursuing a PhD in entomology at the University of Missouri where he studies native bee populations in urban areas.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the N.C. Office of Environmental Education closes its doors, more than 200 partner organizations will lose the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-806469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}