Although several efforts to get Congress to include a school construction program in the bill reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) have failed thus far, the AFT and others concerned about the dilapidated conditions in some of our nation's school buildings have not given up hope. In August, the AFT, joined by a number of other organizations, sent a letter to House and Senate conferees working on the ESEA reauthorization bill, entitled the "Better Education for Students and Teachers Act." The letter urged the lawmakers to include an authorization for a $1.6 billion emergency school repair program in the act's final conference report.

"If the federal government is going to raise academic standards for all students, it must also help to provide public schools with the assistance needed to help ensure every student has access to a safe, modern, well-equipped learning environment that will help spur those achievement levels," the letter said in part.

School districts across the country are struggling to renovate and repair aged school facilities. The letter pointed out that, "Tragically, students in virtually every state will attend classes in overcrowded buildings with leaky roofs, crumbling ceilings, and outdated, faulty ventilation and heating systems."

The concern over districts' ability to fund much-needed school repairs is backed by figures from the latest annual survey of spending on school maintenance and operations (M&O). It shows that the percentage of district budgets devoted to M&O is the smallest in three decades.

Every year, American School and University magazine mails a survey to chief business officials at public school districts that enroll more than 600 students. Spending on maintenance for the 2000-01 school year, the survey found, rose 3 percent from the year before. But when that figure is examined as a percentage of current school spending, it shows a drop from 9 percent to 8.5 percent from the previous year.

As anyone who works in school facilities knows, this trend toward lower M&O spending is especially unfortunate at a time when school buildings around the country are in growing need of repair and renovation.

The letter to House and Senate conferees also urged Congress to enact the bipartisan America's Better Classroom Act of 2001, which would establish tax credits that would pay the interest costs on almost $25 billion in school construction bonds.

Regardless of Congress's response to the letter, the AFT will continue to lobby for funding designed to help districts repair and modernize their schools, AFT legislative director Charlotte Fraas says. "We are committed to seeing the enactment of a federal program that will address the terrible physical conditions that exist in far too many of our nation's school buildings."