Essentials Magazine Essentials Spring 2019 | 页面 13

Educational Funding
ry School Fund, National Council on
School Facilities, the Center for Cities
+ Schools @ UCB and the Center for
Green Schools @ USGBC formed the
[Re]Build America’s Schools Coalition
(BASIC), a non-partisan coalition to
advocate for federal funding for public
school infrastructure as part of a nation-
al infrastructure package. EDmarket
joined the Coalition earlier this year to
lend its strong voice to the effort.
BASIC, with strongest representation
from state facilities directors from the
National Council on School Facilities,
met with House and Senate members
and staff in 2017 and 2018 to educate
them about the conditions of school
facilities in their states. To date, we have
met with most Republican Senators or
their staff. We have learned that:
• School facilities have not been
on their radar screen, and they know
little if anything about the issue. Simply
getting them up to speed on the scale
of the problem back home and how
federal funding can help has been a
basic first step.
• We have been surprised by their
openness to including school facilities
in any comprehensive package. Only
a few Senate offices have come back
to us with the traditional Republican,
hands-off, “local control” response.
Their perspective is affected by the
conditions on the ground in their state.
• Most are taking a wait-and-see atti-
tude in terms of what the White House
will support and what is finally in the
legislative package.
What You Can Do
The BASIC coalition represents
the only cross sector effort to secure
schools in the infrastructure package.
1) Join BASIC.
2) Contact and visit your legislators
when they are home — Spring recess is
April 13-28th.
3) Write an opinion editorial for
your local paper on the importance
of federal funding for crumbling
schools districts.
n
MARY FILARDO is a leading national authority and advocate for
improving the equity, efficiency and quality of public school facilities.
She founded the 21st Century School Fund in 1994 to improve the
crumbling public school facilities in the District of Columbia. She has
researched and written extensively on public school facility policy and
spending, as well as worked with communities and officials to engage
them in effective long-range facilities master planning.
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essentials | www.edmarket.org 13