Public school facilities are essential

Source: State of Our Schools 2016

Public school facilities are crumbling

The average public school is nearly 50 years old. Too many of these buildings are falling apart. Leaky roofs, broken windows, busted boilers—the basics. According to a 2020 June GAO report, in nearly every category of building systems, almost one quarter of the districts had half or more of their schools needed updates or replacement

Public school facilities are inequitably funded

Public school districts rely heavily on local taxes to fund their buildings. On average, states fund only 22% of the cost of school construction and modernization. 11 states pay nothing. Worse, the federal government pays around 1%, one-third of this federal funding was from FEMA to fix schools following a natural disaster.

All that translates into a capital construction annual gap of $57.4 billion between what communities should be spending to modernize their schools — and what they can afford.

Funding for Capital Construction

Source: State of Our Schools 2021

Heavy reliance on local funding means wealthy communities tend to have good school buildings, while many poor communities do not. For example, despite the enormous progress in expanding technology to America's schools, many rural schools currently lack high-speed broadband that meets national standards.

It's no wonder the American Society of Civil Engineers graded America's School Infrastructure a D+.

WE CAN DO BETTER

Dig Deeper:

Explore the State of Our Schools Report and State Profiles.