Colleges and universities across the country are burdened with inefficiently utilized facilities, leading to unnecessary costs, wasted space, and misplaced financial priorities. This policy brief examines the systemic mismanagement of campus facilities and proposes market-based reforms to legislatures and trustees in order to optimize space usage,…

The commentary argues that we need to address the wide variance in school building quality under and after COVID-19. Evidence suggests that historical underinvestment in school facility capital and maintenance has created unhealthy school buildings across the nation. Federal funding and research is necessary to ensure that schools are healthy…

Poor indoor environmental quality impairs student health and decreases academic performance, yet many school facilities are in disrepair, creating subpar learning conditions. In a 2020 national survey, half of U.S. school districts reported needing to update or replace at least two building systems in many schools. Among the most common unmet…

In November 2020, Duval County voters will decide on a half-penny sales tax to fund upgrades to public school buildings across the district. Revenue will be spent to improve public school buildings for traditional and charter schools. Following the 2020 passage of House Bill 7097, revenue from the sales tax will be allocated to charter school…

This study is the first to empirically examine how school districts allocate resources in response to capital investment revenue from statewide penny sales taxes (called SAVE funds), and whether SAVE funds affect student outputs (i.e., educational achievement). We found evidence that school districts do not use SAVE funds to increase capital…

The $189.5 billion Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund was authorized by Congress to help address the urgent needs of schools brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the first years of COVID-19, ESSER funding was critical to helping schools quickly and safely reopen and sustain in-person instruction. Three years later,…

A statewide coalition of nearly 50 experts -- including doctors, medical and environmental health researchers, educators, youth and community groups -- worked together to explore the challenges of climate change from the perspective of children's health and education. The insights and recommendations are published in this report. It is presented…

Amid fires, wildfire smoke, extreme heat, and other climate-driven disasters and health hazards, California's leading experts in children's health and education have come together to call for a cost-effective, ten year $150 billion investment to ensure K-12 public schools can remain open and provide safe and healthy places for California's…

This paper features an expanded Web-based "Facilities Performance Indicators (FPI) Report." The purpose of APPA: Association of Higher Education Facilities Officers (APPA's) Facilities Performance Indicators is to provide a representative set of statistics about facilities in educational institutions. The goal for this year was to…

In 2023, Auckland Council's Sustainable Schools Team (SST) piloted a project called "Mana Ora: Students Decarbonising Schools." The aim was that students, with guidance and support from teachers and SST, would plan and implement climate and sustainability action projects linked to decarbonisation within their schools. Eighteen Mana Ora…

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) play a prominent role in the nation's higher education system. For example, about one-third of African Americans receiving a doctorate in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics received undergraduate degrees from HBCUs. To help HBCUs facing challenges accessing funding for capital…

A 2014 study conducted by the National Center for Education Statistics within the U.S. Department of Education (ED) found that 53% of public elementary and secondary schools need to spend money on repairs, renovations, and modernizations to put their onsite buildings in good overall condition. The study estimated that the nationwide spending…

The Coordinating Commission for Postsecondary Education provides funding and priority recommendations for Nebraska State College, University of Nebraska, and Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis (NCTA) capital construction budget requests, as outlined in Nebraska's Constitution and Statutes. The overarching principle used in this…

Long before closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, many Pennsylvania schools faced a different health crisis: unsafe facilities. Crumbling buildings, asbestos, lead, and other school facility health and safety risks plague many schools across Pennsylvania, particularly in low-income districts and those that enroll a high percentage of Black and…

School buildings across America are crumbling. According to a 2020 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), 54 percent of U.S. school districts need to update or completely replace multiple building systems in their schools. As a result of decades of underfunding school infrastructure, national spending for K-12 school buildings…