Charting a Green Course: Environmentally Focused Charter Schools Have Shed Their Birkenstock Image by Preparing Students for the High-Tech, Clean Energy Jobs of the Future

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] We're not tree huggers! That's what Alison Suffet Diaz's students used to say in the early days of Lawndale, CA's Environmental Charter High School, the environmentally focused charter school she founded in 2000 in a South Los Angeles neighborhood where four out of five families live below the poverty line. That was when the mere mention of a charter school--let alone a charter school conjured up images of kids climbing trees and practicing yoga poses at recess. When they played in sports, the other teams on the field would burn a tree [in effigy], thinking that was our mascot, she laughs. Image wasn't the only thing Environmental Charter High struggled with at first. Because charter schools essentially independent public schools do not typically receive funding to cover the cost of securing a facility, Environmental Charter High originally shared its space with a local church. Since the facility didn't belong to the school, technology integration was a challenge, to say the least. We started off just being very wireless, and struggled with firmware not to mention getting the resources in order to get technology working correctly, says Suffet Diaz, On top of it all, securing resources like E-Rate funding, for instance, was a challenge without a stand-alone facility recognized by the state. Needless to say, the school had to make do with the few technology purchases it could afford. In the early days, it was hard to have anything as simple as an LCD projector in your classroom, recalls Principal Jenni Taylor, who taught at ECHS that first year. We just didn't really have technology unless it was some resource we brought in. Science equipment, especially, was fairly limited. A lot has changed since then. To begin with, charter schools don't carry the stigma they once did. Although only 4 percent of the nation's students are currently enrolled in charter schools, that number is fast increasing. According to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, the number of US charter schools grew by 6.7 percent last year; a 7.5-percent increase is projected for the current school year. And in areas of the country plagued by underperforming public schools, stressed further by recession-fueled budget cuts, charter schools are being added at a dizzying pace. New York state, for instance, anticipates 20 percent more charters by the end of 2011. The movement, too, has evolved over the years: With renewable energy production now the fastest-growing industrial sector in the world and as many as 37 million US jobs expected in the renewable energy and energy efficiency industries by 2030, it has become clear that the days of associating environmental sustainability with hippiedom are behind us. Students in school today must prepare for these high-tech, science-driven jobs. Enter charter schools. Given the autonomy to develop their own curricula, these institutions have evolved into veritable showcases for 21st century, tech-integrated learning, preparing a new generation of students to not only be good stewards of the Earth, but to take the science world by storm. More than 200 charter schools in the United States call themselves members of the Green Charter Schools Network, a consortium and clearinghouse that was founded in 2008. Schools become members by adhering to the network's print, or list of core practices, according to Jim McGrath, the group's president and executive director. Another hundred or so schools affiliate themselves to some extent with the organization. The network facilitates communication among educators, parents, and policymakers alike, connecting them to resources and other schools that might want to adopt their own eco-focused programs. McGrath points out that, for these environmentally focused schools, green is just a starting point for an ambitious educational and social agenda. …