The Biden administration on Monday announced its new Action Plan for Building Better School Infrastructure, which will implement funds from last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and American Rescue Plan to help schools upgrade transportation and energy systems.
The overarching goal of the multi-pronged plan is to provide “better health and educational outcomes” for K-12 students by reducing air pollution both on their commutes to school and during in-classroom learning, the White House said in a press release. Vice President Kamala Harris is set to further detail the investments at the Thomas Elementary School in Washington, D.C., on Monday evening.
Part of the plan includes a $500 million grant program from the Department of Energy, funded by the BIL, to “help deliver cleaner and healthier classrooms, libraries, cafeterias, playgrounds, and gyms” across the nation’s 100,000 public schools, per the White House.
Projects that will be eligible to receive grants under the new program will include those that result “in a direct reduction in school energy costs,” like air conditioning and heating improvements, repairs to water and lighting systems or any other “improvement, repair, renovation to, or installation in a school that leads to an improvement in teacher and student health.”
The DOE currently has an open Request for Information on how to best implement and distribute various awards from the program, which will remain open until May 18. The ROI is not an application for a grant, and will not be taken as a binding promise to move forward with any given project, per the department.
“Children should be able to learn and grow in environments that are not plagued with poor insulation and ventilation, leaky roofs, or poor heating and cooling,” energy secretary Jennifer Granholm wrote in a release. “President Biden fought for these funds to give schools and their communities the resources they need to improve student and teacher health and cut energy costs, allowing districts to focus more resources on student learning.”
Proper ventilation in schools has taken on higher importance amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend schools ensure their heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems are up-to-date and to improve the level of air filtration in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.
But many public schools have inadequate or out-of-date cooling, heating and ventilation systems, without the funds to address the failing infrastructure.
A 2020 report from the Government Accountability Office found over half of U.S. public school districts needed to update or entirely replace at least two building systems – like HVAC or plumbing – in many of their schools, while nearly a quarter of districts needed to replace six systems in most of their schools. At the time, around 36,000 schools nationwide were in need of updated or new HVAC systems to protect air quality.
Aside from raising the risk of spreading COVID-19, poor ventilation in schools can lead to issues like mold or other airborne toxins, which can both impact student and teacher health and also interrupt learning in the event of cleanup.
Monday’s announcement also included new resources to help school administrators and districts prepare for the upcoming Clean School Bus Program, a $5 billion initiative funded by the BIL to help public schools incorporate more electric buses into their fleets. The program will start accepting applications in late April and will prioritize historically underserved communities in its consideration process.
The White House released a supplemental toolkit to help educators and administrators see what resources are available to them for school renovation projects, as some funds released in the American Rescue Plan still remain unused.
The Treasury Department will, in the coming days or weeks, release additional guidance for state and local leaders who received funds from the ARP to “understand how they can partner with local education agencies to use more of these funds for building upgrades and construction, including pre-project development costs, such as building assessments, energy audits and feasibility studies.”
