Two Newton high schoolers are adding their voices to a critical legislative push for climate literacy in Massachusetts schools. Both Representatives Amy Sangiolo and Greg Schwartz signed on as co-sponsors when the Amendments were being considered in the House.
Newton North senior Cindy Qiao, writing in the Newton Beacon, noted that only six states currently implement meaningful climate education, despite the escalating toll of disasters like wildfires and flooding. Drawing on her work with the Massachusetts Youth Climate Solutions Challenge, where her team helped 100 Newton households sign up for energy-saving programs, she argued climate literacy shouldn’t depend on whether a student happens to join a club — it should be guaranteed by passing H.560/S.391.
Newton South sophomore Viella Alkan, writing in Fig City News, called climate change “the defining issue of the 21st century” slipping through the cracks of the state’s education system. A member of the Massachusetts Youth Climate Coalition (MYCC), Alkan described marching to the State House with hundreds of students in February to demand the bill’s passage, and argued it wouldn’t add new courses, just train teachers to weave climate themes into existing lessons.
Both op-eds were shared with legislators as part of Mass Audubon’s advocacy push for the bill. That push hits a key moment this week: Sen. Jason Lewis is filing the bill as Amendment #29 in the Senate Energy Bill, S. 3143, the package of bills being debated this Wednesday, July 1 — turning Qiao’s and Alkan’s stories into momentum for the vote.