The United States is facing a dual crisis in declining educational outcomes and escalating climate impacts, demonstrating the importance of linking climate action and education policy.

Student achievement has dropped to its lowest level in a quarter century and the pandemic-era spike in chronic absenteeism has largely persisted. Strengthening the nation’s pre-K-12 education system is essential — not just for individual opportunity, but also for broader economic prosperity and innovation.

Climate change is also placing mounting pressures on our country in ways that are impossible to ignore. In 2023, the U.S. experienced a record number of billion-dollar weather disasters, driving up home insurance rates and leading insurers to drop coverage entirely in many of the hardest-hit regions. Last year marked the nation’s hottest on record, with extreme heat waves ballooning emergency room visits and sending electricity bills soaring. Toxic smoke from wildfires in California and Canada has traveled hundreds of miles, blanketing major cities and turning skies orange. In the Southwest, worsening droughts are forcing municipalities to impose water restrictions, while in coastal areas like Florida, sunny-day flooding regularly inundates streets during high tides.

These urgent challenges may appear unrelated, but there is an urgent need to link climate action and education policy. However, the body of evidence we synthesize in a new paper suggests otherwise. Climate change is increasingly disrupting the core operations of America’s pre-K-12 schools, affecting everything from student attendance and achievement to the physical infrastructure and financial stability of school districts.

Yet schools are not only vulnerable to climate impacts, they are also uniquely positioned to be part of the solution, linking climate action and education policy. By taking steps such as reducing building emissions, integrating climate science into the curriculum, expanding outdoor education, and preparing students for careers that advance sustainable practices, schools can play a central role in creating a heathier, more resilient future.

A successful 50-state strategy means embracing multiple approaches. There are opportunities for districts in red and blue states alike to strengthen educational outcomes and environmental stewardship in ways that benefit their bottom lines and reflect their own local priorities.

How Climate Change Is Disrupting Schools

For students to be able to thrive, schools need to open reliably and provide safe and healthy learning environments. But climate-fueled extreme weather events are increasingly compromising schools’ ability to perform these basic functions.

Drawing on risk estimates from FEMA, we find that a quarter of pre-K-12 schools are now located in census tracts designated very high-risk for at least one out of 11 different environmental hazards. The table below allows readers to look up the specific climate hazards that individual K-12 public schools face right now (view the table on its own page here).

Read the full article about climate action and education policy by Matthew A. Kraft, Sohil Malik, and Grace T. Falken at Brookings.