School Building Crisis is on the Horizon

Almost half of U.S. public school buildings are 46 years old or older, and billions in investment is needed to address the looming crisis, an expert explained during the Center for Energy and the Built Environment’s recent webinar.

"Built to Last? Understanding America's School Building Crisis" brought together three presenters who are studying the issue of deteriorating school buildings and developing suggestions for possible solutions.

Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund, is the lead author of the State of Our Schools reports, which details federal, state and local spending on public school buildings. She said that 44,000 of approximately 100,000 schools across the country are old. The U.S. is facing a funding crisis to keep up with new construction, upgrades, and maintenance, she indicated, with a national gap of about $85 billion a year that is needed.

She noted the “incredible complexity state by state in terms of funding, standards, and regulation,” of schools that has contributed to the problem and to inequity among districts.

Tim Shrom, Director of Research at the Pennsylvania Association of School Business Officials, shared some district-level data of school building spending in this state, and noted that recent legislation enacting a comprehensive school facilities inventory requirement may help to address the issue. H.B. 1701 directs the Department of Education to track the age, condition, capacity, and use of school buildings statewide for the first time with districts required to provide an inventory yearly starting in 2027.

He noted that state funding for capital improvement projects has been at a three-decade low, and that the inventory will allow the Department of Education to identify problem school buildings, information that districts can use when determining capital improvement budgets. In Pennsylvania, local property taxes provide 52% of funding, while state funding makes up about 37%. He also noted that the cost of school construction has jumped in recent years, further complicating the problem of addressing substandard buildings.

Dr. Corey Young, Executive Director of CEBE, discussed his recently published research on national school building conditions and regional disparities, which found that much of the nation’s school building stock was built before 1969, and that 57% of buildings have had no major renovations since 2000.

“A lot of our schools are not designed for how we conduct our classes today,” he noted.

The presenters suggested developing better funding sources, committing to more investment, and getting more value by developing comprehensive modernization plans as potential paths to address the inadequacies but noted that government, school district, and community support is needed.

A replay of the recent webinar is available in the programs and webinars section of the CEBE website.