Editor's Focus: Documenting Facility Needs... Again

April 1, 2016

The problem of insufficient facilities funding is compounded by the fact that support for education facilities varies widely from state to state, creating major facilities inequities that have escalated the separation between those that have adequate environments for learning and those that do not.

Joe Agron Blog

A new report states the nation’s elementary and secondary schools need to spend an additional $46 billion a year to provide safe, healthful and efficient education facilities.

The report, “State of Our Schools: America’s K-12 Facilities Report,” released last month, explores current and historical data to arrive at its conclusions. Researchers estimate school districts have been spending $99 billion annually on facilities ($50 billion on maintenance/operations and $49 billion on construction). However, institutions should be spending $145 billion annually on facilities, the report states. The U.S. Green Building Council’s Center for Green Schools, the 21st-Century Fund, and National Council on School Facilities jointly produced the report.

The findings are hardly a surprise. Numerous reports over the years have found the nation’s education facilities severely underfunded. Because of this, millions of students spend their days in buildings that are substandard, unhealthy, and often unsafe. In addition, many of these facilities cannot accommodate today’s technologies—putting education at risk due to outdated and inadequate learning environments.

As the report reiterates, the problem of insufficient facilities funding is compounded by the fact that support for education facilities varies widely from state to state, creating major facilities inequities that have escalated the separation between those that have adequate environments for learning and those that do not.

The report advocates not only that states offering little to no support for school construction and renovation ramp up their efforts, but also that the federal government earmark funding for education construction.

For more information on the report’s findings, visit http://centerforgreenschools.org/state-our-schools.

On a related note, for almost 40 years, American School & University conducted an annual Maintenance & Operations (M&O) Cost Study that documented M&O expenditures per student and per square foot for school districts and colleges. The reports were discontinued after the 2009 study.

Since that time, readers have regularly requested AS&U restart the reports as they provided their institutions invaluable benchmarking data for budgeting and planning purposes. I’m excited to announce that in 2017, we will once again conduct an M&O Cost Study. Surveys will be going out over the next few months. Make sure your input is included; send me an email to ensure you receive your survey

About the Author

Joe Agron Blog | Editor-in-Chief and Associate Publisher

Joe Agron is the editor-in-chief/associate publisher of American School & University magazine. Joe has overseen AS&U's editorial direction for more than 30 years, and has helped influence and shape national school infrastructure issues. He has been sought out for comments by publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, USA Today, U.S. News & World Report, ABC News and CNN, and assisted with the introduction of the Education Infrastructure Act of 1994.

Joe also authors a number of industry-exclusive reports. His "Facilities Impact on Learning" series of special reports won national acclaim and helped bring the poor condition of the nation's schools to the attention of many in the U.S. Congress, U.S. Department of Education and the White House.