Is the State of Our Schools an Overlooked Health Crisis?

Public schools in the United States face a staggering annual $90 billion infrastructure investment gap, according to the latest State of Our Schools Report that was released last December. This gap represents the amount needed to bring school facilities to a normal operating condition. In other words, it reflects a widespread state of disrepair across a system of more than 100,000 schools.

In a recent IWBI webcast, “Bridging the $90 Billion School Infrastructure Gap,” Jason Hartke, EVP of Global Policy and Advocacy at IWBI, led an important discussion with leaders in the movement about how to chart a pathway to healthier schools, including a powerful conversation about how chronic underinvestment in school facilities may be triggering a public health crisis affecting 50 million students and 6 million educators and administrators.

“As the title of today’s webcast suggests, we have a singular focus today: to dig into the persistent problem with our K-12 school infrastructure, a severe underinvestment, year-over-year, that is costing our children, costing our country and costing our future,” said Hartke. “Toward that, part of our goal is to explore the real-world technology, financing, and policy solutions—alongside innovative programs and new ideas—that can help reshape our schools and prioritize them as what they are: essential infrastructure.”

The discussion unfolded against the backdrop of a longstanding and systemic problem. Most of our public schools were built prior to the 1970s, when asbestos and lead were common construction materials. Today, the average school is well over 40 years old, with many as old as 100 years, far outlasting their lifecycle, and lacking comprehensive modernization. By way of example, building codes for systems such as energy, water, HVAC, filtration and plumbing are typically considered outdated within 20 years, much less a half-century or more.

With the federal government contributing just 3% in capital spending on schools, average annual spending amounts to $3,000 per student and $416 per square foot for what adds up to piecemeal repairs and renovations. “At this rate, school infrastructure doesn’t stand a chance of meeting current-day needs,” said Mary Filardo, Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund, and principal author of the State of Our Schools Report. In fact, there is an $86 billion annual gap in funds needed to modernize the country’s public school system.

Acknowledging the Adverse Health Consequences

“With every 1 in 12 children having asthma, 13.8 million days of school are missed annually by 383,000 children,” noted Kenneth Mendez, President of the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America. It’s the third leading cause of hospitalizations for American school children and the leading cause of chronic absenteeism. Kids are falling behind, losing competency and grade level.

But there are other potential misdiagnosed conditions holding kids back, according to Dr. Whitney Austin Gray, who leads research at IWBI.

• “What’s often mischaracterized as brain fog or laziness in school children is likely due to high-peaking carbon dioxide in classrooms, which research finds reduces cognitive scores by 20%.
• “Misbehavior and high suspension rates are often attributed to poor discipline or home life. Yet thermal stress and higher pollution levels affect behavior and can drive kids into a fight or flight mode.
• “Children with low energy or motivation who have difficulty getting up for school in the morning are often thought to have spent too much time on social media, when the reality may be interrupted circadian rhythms from poor school lighting. Without the right light, children can become biologically out of sync, producing too little melatonin at night and not enough serotonin during the day.”

Our country’s chronic underinvestment in schools is worsening environmental conditions and adversely affecting children’s health, attendance, learning and performance.

In addition to inadequate federal funding, another hurdle to addressing school infrastructure is a lack of government coordination. “There’s no one federal government agency responsible for upgrades,” said John Reeder, Executive Director of the Healthy Schools Network. He, along with others, urged for a more coordinated, more cohesive approach across federal agencies, including the Department of Education, the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Exploring a Suite of Powerful Solutions

Public-private partnerships between government and energy services companies (ESCOs) are another innovative financing mechanism. At the federal level, they are called Energy Service Performance Contracts (ESPCs), which leverage billions of private sector dollars to make significant health and energy improvements to federal buildings without the use of any taxpayer dollars. Instead, the projects are paid from guaranteed energy savings from a host of energy conservation measures. Tyler Smith, Digital Services and Healthy Buildings Executive at Johnson Controls, outlined how this type of funding mechanism, often called a “paid-from-savings” approach, generates millions in energy and cost savings for endusers. Further, it could be significantly expanded to more schools across more states, creating a powerful win-win-win for energy efficiency, health and capital-strapped school districts.
All of the panelists agreed the federal government should step in to better support school infrastructure. Senator Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Congressman Bobby Scott of Virginia proposed bicameral legislation to do just that through the Rebuild America’s Schools Act, which would invest $130 billion in direct grants and school construction bonds to help fill the annual gap in school facility capital needs.

Reeder mentioned another important government program, Tools for Schools, which helps school districts overhaul their maintenance and operations to be more efficient and cost-effective. But the program needs to be expanded and strengthened to upgrade practices across all schools, he said.

Throughout the discussion, considerable attention was given to technology innovation, particularly continuous monitoring of indoor air quality. Monitoring makes the invisible visible, allowing schools to respond quickly when mechanical breakdowns occur or CO2 levels spike or other indoor environmental problems arise. “Continuous air monitoring in schools needs to become the baseline standard so that problems can be identified early and addressed,” said Dr. Serene Almomen, CEO of Attune.

Finally, the discussion turned to greater education of parents and the public to raise awareness and call attention to the problems facing our aging school infrastructure, including the health consequences. empowering them to demand more fitting school environments from their elected officials. Pam Loeffelman of DLR Group emphasized that engaging in the policy conversation is essential and empowers us all to demand better school environments from our elected officials. “Good policy is a must,” she said.

With inadequate investment in our schools, we are neglecting our most precious ecosystem: the places in which children’s developing brains go to flourish, but are instead at risk of being malnourished. “When a plant is dying, we don’t blame the plant,” said Dr. Gray. “We look at its environment – the water, the soil, the light – to see what’s wrong.” Instead of blaming students and families, it’s past time we invest the real funds required to bring schools up to par so that children can thrive.