Why American Public Schools Are In Ruins – Literally

Bob Hellman's U.S. News & World Report commentary begins on a specific day, the one on which the U.S. Department of Education announced it was cutting its workforce by about half, more than 1,300 employees. He argues that such cuts threaten to deepen a school-infrastructure crisis that has been building quietly for decades. The American Infrastructure Partners CEO paints a grim picture of the average American school building, citing inadequate ventilation, unreliable internet, and poor insulation that leaves classrooms too hot in summer and too cold in winter, all of which he links to impaired student concentration and learning.

He marshals a battery of data to make the case. The American Society of Civil Engineers, in a 2021 report, graded the nation's school infrastructure a D+, finding that schools in more than half of U.S. districts needed significant repairs or full building replacements. More than a third of public schools rely on portable buildings, nearly half of which are in poor or only fair condition, and the average school building is nearly half a century old, with almost four in ten built before 1970.

Hellman connects those conditions directly to outcomes. Citing the National Center for Education Statistics, he notes that students in modernized schools perform up to 20 percent better on standardized tests and that upgraded facilities correlate with higher attendance, with students up to 15 percent less likely to miss school due to illness. He points to the EPA's link between poor school air quality and asthma-related absenteeism, which falls hardest on vulnerable children, and cites the U.S. Department of Energy's estimate that clearing the nation's deferred school maintenance, such as leaky roofs, broken plumbing, and outdated electrical systems, would cost more than $270 billion.

The traditional fixes, Hellman argues, are failing. He acknowledges bright spots, noting that Massachusetts has invested more than $17 billion in its public schools since 2004 and the Los Angeles Unified School District has committed $27 billion since 1997, but he adds that even the $100 billion for school modernization in the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act was only a first step, much of it not directed to physical-plant improvements. Local bond measures, the conventional funding route, are increasingly unreliable. He cites an S&P Global analysis finding that 30 percent of local bond measures were defeated, leaving roughly $31 billion in projects unfunded.

His proposed solution is public-private partnerships that leverage private capital and expertise to accelerate school upgrades, along with tools such as green bonds. He notes U.S. Green Building Council research showing that energy-efficient schools save an average of $100,000 a year in energy costs. Government, Hellman concludes, will never raise enough on its own or move fast enough to fix every school, and with students already struggling in reading and math since the pandemic, the case for bringing private investment to bear on safe, modern learning environments is urgent.