Maine Gov. Janet Mills’ (D) Office of Policy Innovation and the Future (GOPIF) is partnering with a Brunswick-based nonprofit organization to fund the training of Maine students to be climate change activists.
According to a state contract document published Thursday, the Mills administration will be paying the Maine Environmental Education Association (MEEA), a 501(c)(3) environmental activist nonprofit organization, a grant of $8,844 for the project.
The project will include funding for educational conferences and for students to organize climate change activist groups at Maine schools.
“MEEA will provide services in support of a youth climate action pilot program to support groups of students, educators and school administrators from across the state to plan and implement climate action projects at their schools through leadership training, school climate action roadmaps and case studies, and technical assistance through the state’s new Green Schools Program, including support to access federal funding for projects,” the description of the grant reads.
The “youth climate action pilot program” will be in line with Gov. Mills’ “Maine Won’t Wait” four-year climate change action plan, which sets the goal of making the state carbon neutral by 2045.
“A new youth climate action pilot program will include conferences and other support for school groups to develop and implement climate action projects including support to access technical assistance and federal funding,” the state contract reads.
“Through this contract, MEEA will support the youth climate action pilot including the development of workshops and assistance to school groups participating in the pilot,” it continues. “This will include for example, providing compensation to conference leaders for the development and delivery of programming, reimbursing schools for transportation costs to reduce barriers for rural schools to participate, and other support for school groups to plan and implement climate projects at their school.”
The MEAA is one of 56 affiliate organizations of the North American Association for Environmental Education, and is a partner organization of Maine Youth for Climate Justice. The nonprofit recently held a $50 “equity workshop” entitled “White Women and Gender Expansive People Taking on Our Own White Supremacy.”
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which measures reading and mathematics proficiency of 4th and 8th grade students in U.S. public schools, released their 2024 report last week, showing that spending more per pupil than ever before, reading and math scores in Maine and nationwide have continued to plummet over the last decade.
The NAEP results show that in Maine, one-third of 4th graders and less than a quarter of 8th graders are proficient or advanced in math.
In reading, just 26 percent of students in grades 4 and 8 are proficient or advanced. Maine now ranks 43rd in 4th grade math, 27th in 8th grade math, 43rd in 4th grade reading, and 35th 8th grade reading, relative to the other states.
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