Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2019 | Page 12

Educational Funding
BASIC VISION: A modest federal role in public school infrastructure that builds state
and local capacity to address unhealthy, unsafe, inadequate and inequitable
public school facilities in the lowest wealth and highest need districts.
tive states without the ability to provide
modern public school facilities.
Evolving School Needs
The inequities in ability to pay are
extreme, even as school districts are
faced with nearly identical facilities
challenges.
• Public school facilities average
about 50 years old, and their roofs, boil-
ers, air handling units, windows, doors,
plumbing and electrical systems, finishes,
furniture, fixtures and equipment have
exceeded their expected lives and
need to be upgraded or replaced.
• Construction codes have
changed over the life of these
buildings, and school districts must
make design and construction
changes to address these new stan-
dards for climate change, accessi-
bility, health and life-safety.
• Education delivery and curriculum
have changed, and career technical edu-
cation, early childhood, special educa-
tion, and educational technology often
require reimagining school facilities
altogether or making design and con-
struction alterations to existing facilities
in support of teaching and learning.
• School-age populations and demo-
graphics always change, and the needs
for shared use of public school facili-
ties for day care, elder care, and other
programs and services during the school
day, after school and throughout the
calendar year are increasing.
This environment has left school dis-
tricts about $38 billion short each year
to maintain existing school facilities in
good repair and to make the alterations
necessary to support the instruction,
programs, services and community uses
required for 21st century learning com-
munities. A modest federal role in pub-
lic school infrastructure that builds state
and local capacity to address unhealthy,
unsafe, inadequate and inequitable pub-
lic school facilities in the lowest wealth
and highest need districts.
12 essentials | spring 2019
Status of Education Infrastructure
Funding in Congress
For years, Capitol Hill staff have
described the passage of infrastructure
legislation as a “white buffalo.” Today,
despite a divided Congress, there is
favorable movement. There is a rare
legislative window and the first real
opportunity to include public school
facilities in national infrastructure pol-
icy. On February 25, President Trump
urged Congress to take up infrastruc-
ture legislation, which would fulfill one
of his campaign pledges. At a luncheon
with Republican and Democratic gov-
ernors in March, Vice President Mike
Pence went so far as to promise that
the current Congress will “pass historic
infrastructure legislation.”
Having reclaimed the chamber,
House Democrats have taken the lead
on infrastructure. The House Trans-
portation & Infrastructure and House
Education & Labor Committees have
already held hearings on green infra-
structure and on school facility fund-
ing. House Education & Labor Com-
mittee Chairman Bobby Scott (D-VA)
and Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) intro-
duced the Rebuild America’s Schools
Act, HR 865 and SB 266 now co-spon-
sored by 179 House Democrats and
25 Senate Democrats. On February
26, the House Ed & Labor Committee
successfully marked up the bill to be
ready to be sent to the House floor.
The House and Senate bills are iden-
tical and include: $70 billion of direct
funding as block grants to states over 10
years to be distributed, by states, based
on low-wealth and high-need facilities
and students, and $30 billion for bond
financing tax credits over two years, also
distributed according to needs-based
criteria. Other important elements of
this legislation are the ability to use $1
billion to build state capacity for data,
planning, technical assistance, and
guidance on standards, and national
research and reporting.
In their broader infrastructure
proposal last year, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic
Leader Chuck Schumer set the base-
line for public school facilities
funding at $40 billion for K-12
and $10 billion for community
college facilities. The position
of the Democratic leadership is
important because it must be fully
prepared to produce and continue
to advocate for an infrastructure
plan that includes public school
buildings.
However, the 116th congressional
legislative window for action is short. Con-
gressman Richard Neal (D-MA), Chair-
man of the Ways and Means Committee,
is discussing with Treasury Secretary
Steve Mnuchin how to finance a pack-
age, and Neal believes that Congress has
until the end of August to act. In a recent
meeting with the staff of House Majority
Whip Jim Clyburn (D-SC), the Deputy
Policy Director suggested that the House
may take up a comprehensive infrastruc-
ture package in May.
Advancing a Bi-Partisan
Advocacy Strategy
The Democrats are committed to
federal infrastructure funding and to
schools in the infrastructure package.
The House is likely to pass the Rebuild
America’s School Act. However, there
is no bi-partisanship on this legislation.
Even though in a recent poll of Amer-
icans — Republican and Democrat —
66 percent said they supported federal
spending on school buildings.
In January 2018, the 21st Centu-