Schools in Need

Every school day an estimated 14 million American children attend deteriorating public schools.

Roofs leak. Ventilation is poor. Heating and air conditioning systems do not maintain reasonable temperatures. Lighting is inadequate. Plumbing is a constant problem. Entire schools do not meet basic local and State codes for health and safety.

Of the existing 80,000 schools at least one-third are in need of extensive repair or replacement. At least two-thirds have troublesome environmental conditions: the presence of asbestos, lead in water and paint, leaking underground storage tanks and radon, or they lack noise control or physical security.

The average public school building in America is forty-two years old and was not designed to meet the demands of current and future technology. Renovation to support technology often requires changes to building structure, such as wiring and electric capacity, air conditioning and ventilation as well as security. A major cost in rewiring schools is the need to comply with new regulations on asbestos management.

Consider these facts:

• The nation’s public school districts need $322 billion in new spending to bring school buildings up to modern standards, according to a first-ever state-by-state estimate of the potential cost of school modernization. A research team at the National Education Association asked state education officials to give their current assessments of what their states need to repair and modernize existing schools. The NEA team found that, nationwide, local public schools need $268 billion for infrastructure and $54 billion to equip their schools with modern technology.
• The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) in 1997 estimated that the cost to bring the nation's public schools up to a basic standard for health, safety and modernization, would be $112 billion.
• The U.S. Department of Education estimates that $60 billion will be required to build new schools to meet expanding enrollment. The Department forecasts a 25 per cent increase in public school population by 2006.
• The GAO estimates that 30% of rural, 38% of urban and 29% of suburban schools have at least one building needing extensive repair or total replacement.

The disrepair of so many schools has many roots, including changing economic conditions that have left many localities unable to finance school construction bonds and the fact that so many schools are nearing the end of their useful lives.

Enrollments Are Rising

In September of 1998, NCES released a Back to School Special Report on the Baby Boom Echo entitled America's Schools Are Overcrowded and Wearing Out. Findings include:

• A record 52.7 million children are enrolled in elementary and secondary schools today, and this number will climb to 54.3 million by 2008.
• At least 2,400 new public schools will be needed by 2003 to accommodate rising enrollments and to relieve overcrowding and thousands more will be needed in following years. [NCES data, 1999]

Unlike the "baby boom" of the 1950s and 1960s which tapered off , the current enrollment boom is rising. Births will begin edging up from 4.1 million in 2008 to 4.5 million in 2018.

The long-term implications of this immense wave of young people going to school require educators and community leaders to recognize that short-term solutions -symbolized by the ever-present portable classrooms in countless school yards - are not sufficient.

Rebuild America's Schools is a coalition of concerned groups from throughout the U.S. working to focus attention on this crisis and to find ways to help communities modernize their schools. The federal government can be a partner as States and local communities struggle to build and modernize schools.