GETTING AMERICA BACK TO WORK: FIXING AMERICA’S SCHOOLS

According to the 21st Century School Fund, school districts have an estimated $271 billion of deferred building and grounds maintenance needs in their schools. This averages to $4,883 per student. In addition, the Council of the Great City Schools recently released a study that projects that urban school districts need approximately:

• $20.1 billion in new construction,
•  $61.4 billion in repair, renovation and modernization, and
• $19 billion in deferred maintenance.

For children in the nation’s poorest school districts, these deferred projects too often mean children attend schools with crumbling ceilings and overcrowded classrooms that lack the basic technology needed for students to obtain 21st century skills.

Poor school infrastructure adversely affects both students and teachers. A national survey of school nurses found more than 40 percent of the nurses knew children and staff adversely impacted by avoidable indoor pollutants. Students from 95 New York City public schools attended fewer days on average in schools with poor facilities; and those students had lower grades in English and math.

The time to fix America’s schools is now. These smart and targeted investments in school modernization and improvements will also create private-sector construction and construction-related jobs.

The American Jobs Act(S. 1660, H.R. 12) – Provides a $25 billion investment to help modernize, renovate and repair 35,000 schools, in addition to $5 billion for community colleges.. According to estimates, this will support more than 315,000 jobs for construction workers, engineers, maintenance staff, and electrical workers.

Fix America’s Schools Today or FAST (S. 1597, H.R. 2948) – Provides a $30 billion investment (paid for by ending tax breaks for fossil fuels) for deferred maintenance and repairs for local schools ($25 billion) and commmunity colleges ($5 billion). 

21st Century Green High-Performing Schools Act (H.R. 3490) – Provides grants to states for the modernization, renovation, or repair of public schools, including early learning facilities and charter schools, to make them safe, healthy, high-performing, and technologically up-to-date.

The Rebuilding America’s Schools Act (S. 796, H.R. 2394) – Extends the Qualified School Construction Bond and Qualified Zone Academy Bond programs to continue their important financial support to build, renovate and modernize schools across America.

Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act (H.R. 2914) – Creates 400,000 construction and 250,000 maintenance jobs by funding positions created by public school districts to undertake school rehabilitation improvements. The legislation will also provide assistance to help repair schools in states hit by natural disasters.

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