The Maine Senate has advanced a bipartisan bill that would help teachers expand climate change educational offerings in the state’s public schools. 

The Senate voted 18 to 12 on Wednesday in favor of the bill, which has already passed the House. It proposes a three-year pilot grant program using $3 million in state surplus funding for schools and nonprofits to create new climate-related professional development programs. 

Under the Next Generation Science Standards that Maine adopted in 2019, students are required to learn the basics of climate change science and how human activity affects the planet. 

But teachers have said that they need more support and resources in order to meet this standard effectively, and to teach climate change in an interdisciplinary way that empowers students, connects to impacts in Maine and ties in socioeconomic effects and solutions. 

Senator Mattie Daughtry (D-Brunswick) said she felt it’s worth a one-time use of surplus funds to support something that students across the state have told her they want. 

“This is their future,” Daughtry said. “They want to know how to make Maine better and how to save their state, their quality of life and make our planet a better place.” 

The bill would also mark the first progress on the education goal in the state’s climate action plan. It goes next to the Legislature’s appropriations committee for a final funding decision.