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The Biden administration has announced that it is launching a $500 million Department of Energy grant program aimed at making the nation’s school facilities more energy efficient.
The Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure will award grants to school systems so they can carry out building improvements, such as energy-efficiency audits and building retrofits, HVAC and lighting upgrades, and clean energy installation.
“Energy efficiency improvements to HVAC systems, lighting, insulation, and other energy upgrades can not only protect the health of our children, but also unlock significant savings to go toward students and learning,” the White House said in a news release.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced the plan at Neville Thomas Elementary in Washington, D.C.
“For decades, our country has chronically underinvested in our public schools and far too many of our school districts have gone without important repairs and upgrades to buildings and to classrooms,” Harris said.
As part of the effort, the Department of Education has proposed creation of an Office of Infrastructure and Sustainability. It would provide technical assistance and training to state and local education agencies on issues related to educational facility planning, design, financing, construction, improvement, operation, and maintenance, including green building design and operation practices.
“Students need school environments filled with safety, belonging, and health to learn and thrive,” the White House says. “Yet many schools rely on outdated heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems that make classrooms less comfortable and may pose health risks to students and teachers exposed to contaminants or particles in the air that can trigger allergies or asthma attacks and potentially spread infectious diseases – including Covid-19. Dirty diesel buses pose additional health risks for students on board and the neighborhoods they travel through — and exhaust from idling buses can pollute the air around schools.”
The White House statement noted that school districts throughout the nation have been plagued for many years with less than adequate facilities. But living through a pandemic in the last two years has made the need for safer, more healthful facilities even more evident.
“While teachers and education leaders have long raised concerns about the level of comfort and air quality in our classrooms, the pandemic has laid bare disparities in access to healthy facilities, including modern, efficient, and clean HVAC systems,” the White House said. “Outdated, inefficient buildings also saddle underserved school districts with higher energy bills and generate significant greenhouse gas emissions, keeping them in a cycle of underfunding operations and overpaying maintenance costs.”
“These grants will help schools reduce their energy costs significantly, savings that can be reinvested in the school to hire more teachers, to make long needed repairs or to invest in new technology to support learning,” Harris said.
“And at the same time these grants will create good-paying union jobs for electricians, carpenters, painters and more.”
