In the landscape of 2026, American education is undergoing a long-overdue “Great Recalibration.” From the surge in universal school choice to the revival of classical curricula, parents and policymakers are reclaiming the classroom.
Yet, one powerful gatekeeper remains largely unchallenged, quietly shaping how the next generation perceives the natural world: the North American Association for Environmental Education. It is time for the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency to stop funding its activism.
For decades, the NAAEE has received millions of dollars from the EPA’s Office of Environmental Education to become the definitive arbiter of “environmental literacy.”
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But a closer look at their policy framework reveals that the “science” being taught is increasingly a thin veneer for a very specific brand of political mobilization. It is time to stop treating the NAAEE’s Guidelines for Excellence as a neutral gold standard and start seeing it for what it is: a policy of “Environmental Action Civics” that prioritizes the megaphone over the microscope.
The primary policy failure of the NAAEE lies in its shift from objective inquiry to outcome-based activism. Traditional science education is rooted in the “how”: how to observe, how to test a hypothesis, and how to remain skeptical of one’s own biases. The NAAEE’s framework, however, focuses on the “what”: what policy to support, what petition to sign, and what global lifestyle changes to demand. By embedding activism into the core of environmental education, the NAAEE has effectively replaced the lab coat with a protest sign.
The NAAEE aims to align American classroom standards with the United Nations’s sustainable development goals, a significant overreach and sacrifice of local civics. While global cooperation is a fine sentiment, the SDGs are a collection of political and economic prescriptions, not immutable laws of nature. By codifying these goals into their professional certification programs, the NAAEE forces educators to promote a globalist agenda that often ignores local economic realities and national sovereignty.
That is just the beginning of the deleterious effects of this type of instruction. Climate alarmism has weighed down the psychological and emotional state of our youth to such an extent that a not insignificant number of them suffer from “eco-grief” or “eco-anxiety.” The constant drumbeat of gloom and doom apocalypticism preaching that the end of the world is nigh is simply not healthy for our children.
We are seeing the consequences of this policy monoculture in our current workforce. While states like Florida and Arizona move toward “Classical Education” models that emphasize disinterested inquiry, the NAAEE’s rigid standards act as a barrier to entry for industry experts. A retired geologist or a land manager with 30 years of experience should be a prized asset in a science classroom. Instead, under NAAEE-aligned state requirements, they are often deemed “unqualified” because they haven’t been schooled in the specific social justice-focused pedagogy the association demands.
Perhaps most egregious is the total erasure of free-market principles in the NAAEE’s “approved” curriculum. In the world according to the NAAEE, the environment is a fragile victim of human progress, and the only solution is state-led regulation and “consumption limits.” You will search its materials in vain for a robust discussion on the Coase Theorem, the power of property rights in conservation, or how technological optimism, fueled by the very capitalism it critiques, is actually driving the “greening” of the planet.
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By ignoring market-based stewardship, the NAAEE is not educating, but propagandizing. It fails to teach students that the most effective way to protect a forest or a stream is often to give someone an ownership stake in its health. It pushes a narrow perspective on the economy and the environment as a zero-sum game, a mindset that is as scientifically dated as it is socially destructive.
Our students deserve to know how the world works, not just how the NAAEE thinks they should vote. It’s time to take the megaphone away and give them back the microscope. The EPA, and the rest of the federal government, should stop funding international political activism and instead put those taxpayer dollars toward what the voters want.
Houston Keene joined Democracy Restored after a career working in Congress and as a nationally syndicated journalist covering politics, including the executive branch and government ethics. Houston was born in Austin, Texas, and is a proud father, husband, and Baylor Bear.