America's Public Schools Are Pushing 50. It's Time to Act Like It

Bob Hellman's commentary in The 74 opens with a striking figure. The average public school building in America is now 49 years old, and more than half of all districts report buildings that need significant repairs or full replacement. For the American Infrastructure Partners CEO, that is not merely a maintenance backlog. It is a direct threat to the country's ability to deliver a 21st-century education in buildings that were never designed for one.

He points to the American Society of Civil Engineers, which has given school infrastructure a D+ for three consecutive report cards while the rest of the nation's infrastructure improved. Nearly four in ten public school buildings were constructed before 1970, and the funding gap needed to bring them up to a functional standard now stands at an estimated $429 billion. On the ground, that deferred maintenance looks like leaking roofs, asbestos ceiling tiles, mold, parking lots full of potholes, rusted playground equipment, and classrooms that are too hot in summer or too cold in winter because heating and ventilation systems failed long ago.

Hellman builds his case on research that is now catching up to what families have experienced for years. The economist Julien LaFortune studied facility investment in the Los Angeles Unified School District and found measurable gains in test scores, attendance, and surrounding property values after new school buildings were constructed. What made the findings notable was that the improvements were not explained by changes in class size, teachers, principals, or student composition. Once researchers stripped away those variables, the building itself remained. By LaFortune's analysis, every dollar invested in school facilities returned roughly $1.62 in increased housing values.

The effect on teachers is equally important. Research going back two decades has documented a direct link between facility condition and teacher retention. When a building deteriorates, the teachers with the most options leave first. When a school is modernized, that dynamic reverses. Qualified educators who previously passed over the school begin applying, and teachers who are already there choose to stay. The result is a more experienced faculty working with better tools in a better environment, and students who receive stronger instruction as a direct consequence. Students in modernized facilities score higher on standardized assessments and miss fewer days of school. Studies during COVID first noted the correlation between better ventilation and improved cognitive performance, and more recent work has found that improved air conditioning systems boosted math scores and reduced suspensions.

Hellman offers a concrete example in the Detroit Public Safety Academy, a dropout recovery program that delivers a full certified high school diploma rather than a GED. Upon graduation, students move directly into careers in public safety with real wages and futures. The program now posts a 90 percent graduation rate among a population that had largely been written off. Hellman argues that this model would not work in a building that was falling apart. The aging facility underwent a dramatic renovation, and without that renovation the program would not exist.

The same logic applies to modern workforce development. Manufacturing labs equipped with computer-controlled machine tools and robotic arms require purpose-built space that a building from 1963 cannot provide. Forty-seven states passed career education laws in 2023 alone, and more than 11 million students are currently enrolled in career and technical education programs. The demand exists. In too many communities, the buildings to support it do not.

Hellman also challenges the common assumption that declining enrollment causes deteriorating schools. He suggests the arrow may often point the other way. Families leave schools that no longer meet their expectations, taking funding with them, which causes the school to deteriorate further. Modernize the building, he argues, and the sequence can begin running in reverse. The National Bureau of Economic Research found that roughly $20 in housing value accumulates for every additional dollar in per-pupil spending near improved schools, a signal of how much families are willing to pay to be near a school that works.

His closing point is that communities need to treat the school building as a starting point rather than a last priority. Children only pass through the education system once, and they should not spend those years waiting for adults to decide that the building matters.