> Photo 8.2 School boards are being pressed to eliminate unnecessary spending, and school budgets must stand up to close scrutiny. Many districts are trying to “do more with less,” in spite of demands for smaller schools, teacher shortages, and deteriorating old school buildings.
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8-4e School Infrastructure and Environmental Problems school infrastructure The basic physical facilities of the school plant (plumbing, sewer, heat, electric, roof, windows, and so on).
The nation’s school infrastructure is in critical disrepair. By infrastructure, we mean the basic physical facilities of the school plant (plumbing, sewer, heat, electric, roof, carpentry, and so on). Building experts estimate that schools in the United States are deteriorating faster than they can be repaired and faster than most other public facilities. Plumbing, windows, electrical wiring, and heating systems in many schools are dangerously out of date; roofing is below code; and exterior brickwork, stone, and wood are in serious disrepair. Over the past twenty-five years, school districts have had to defer maintenance of school facilities due to a lack of funds for upkeep and repair (Photo 8.2). Estimates of the costs of this deferred maintenance is estimated to range from $270 billion to more than $542 billion.55 When maintenance and repair work is delayed, students are subjected to potentially dangerous conditions: unsafe drinking water, poor air quality from mold, outdated security systems, reduced curricular offerings as specialized spaces such as gyms are closed, and danger from structural problems.56 Even as school boards struggle to meet the needs of an aging infrastructure, demographers are projecting continued growth of the school-age population. From 2015 to 2021, the Pre-K through 12th grade population is expected to grow by more than 2 million students. In 2012, $10 billion was spent on new buildings and modernization of existing ones to prepare for these new students. This is half of the funding level for the year prior to the recession. Repairs aside, concern continues to grow about where the money will come from to build the additional classrooms we continue to need.57
55 21st Century School Fund, Through Your Lens: Student and Teacher Views of School Facilities across America (2010) at www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED509518.pdf (February 8, 2015); “2013 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure: Schools,” ASCE – America’ Society of Civil Engineers (2013) at www.infrastructurereportcard.org/schools/; and “The State of Our Schools 2013,” The Center for Green Schools (January 14, 2013) at http://centerforgreenschools.org/Libraries /State_of_our_Schools/2013_State_of_Our_Schools_Report_FINAL.sflb.ashx. 56 “PK–12 Public School Facility Infrastructure Fact Sheet,” The 21st Century School Fund and Building Educational Success Together (BEST) (February 2011) at www.21csf.org/csf-home/Documents /FactSheetPK12PublicSchoolFacilityInfrastructure.pdf. 57 “Actual and Projected Numbers for Enrollment in Grades PK–12, PK–8, and 9–12 in Elementary and Secondary Schools, by Control of School: Fall 1996 through Fall 2021,” Projections of Education Statistics to 2021 (January 2013) at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/projections /projections2021/tables/table_01.asp.
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