Why has school infrastructure deteriorated so much?
Many of the problems with America’s school infrastructure are simply that it’s old, said Mary Filardo, executive director of the 21st Century Schools Fund, who testified before the Philadelphia City Council last year about the importance of modernizing school buildings.
Buildings that are part of the “crumbling” school infrastructure were typically built in the 70s and have a lifespan of about 50 years.
“There’s a huge push to build something, but there’s rarely an equal amount of funding on the operational side to properly maintain it,” Filardo says.
Filardo points out that schools built more than 50 years ago did not take into account the needs of modern teachers and students. For younger students, there may be classrooms with only one electrical outlet or kindergarten rooms with no toilets within the classroom. ADA accessibility requirements didn’t exist until the ’90s.
“To the honor of humanity, we have learned some things, so the standards we have to meet are different and better, healthier and more educationally enriching. Now we can create an environment,” says Filardo. “But the reality is we don’t have the systems to deliver or support that very well. So we’re playing catch-up.”
Filardo also says that millions more children are attending school today than when many of the buildings were built. This includes not only population growth but also the participation of children who previously were not allowed to attend school at all.
“Public schools have been child welfare services in many ways,” Filardo said. “So now we have social workers, psychologists, special education services in public schools, but that wasn’t the case before. Children were more institutionalized and out of school. It was a really different environment.”
Guy Brisner, president of the National Council on School Facilities, said funding for school construction has long been a local issue, with occasional support from the state. Many school districts continued to see student population growth through the ’80s, and rural student populations were hit particularly hard as families moved to urban areas.
“Schools that were built to accommodate 200 to 250 students now have 70 students and we don’t have the opportunity to rebuild them because of the cost,” Brisner said. “So they are continuing to use a facility that was built in the ’50s or ’60s and trying to continue to maintain it and serve the community that is currently there.”
Brandon T. Payne, executive director of the National Council on School Facilities and a colleague of Mr. Briesner, said school districts typically take on debt when building new facilities, but maintenance must come from the operating budget. said. This means that without funds in the bank, maintenance needs will be deferred. And when the economy slows, meaning sales and property taxes decline, district budgets take a hit.
“We have a significant backlog of deferred maintenance nationwide that we have been putting off because of the more pressing need to educate our students,” Payne said. says Mr.
Another issue is the quality of construction. Bleizner said buildings built from the ’30s to ’50s were built with longevity in mind, and quality began to decline in the ’60s.
“In early education, we built a temple to education,” Brisner said. “Right now we’re building a teaching barn.”
