“When policymakers discuss educational inequality, the conversation usually centers on teachers, curriculum, or school funding. Yet one important factor often receives far less attention: the condition of the school building itself,” researchers from the Learning Policy Institute and the University at Albany wrote in an Oct. 7 report that calls for state policymakers to address unequal access to adequate school facilities.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the average public school building in the U.S. is nearly 50 years old, and while 38 percent of these buildings were constructed before 1970, about 25 percent have never undergone a major renovation.
Past research has linked improvements in overall building quality to increased academic performance, effective ventilation to improved educational and behavioral outcomes, and good recreational facilities to more physical activity among children and increased student well-being.
Using New York state as a case study, the new report, published by the Brookings Institution, that students of color are systematically more likely than white students to attend schools with poorer physical conditions, with disparities closely tied to how school facilities are financed.
New construction, renovations and repairs are primarily financed by localities (e.g., long-term bonds or capital reserve funds), which the state supplements with building aid (designated funds) to cover eligible construction costs in districts with less wealth. According to researchers, “nearly one-third of the difference in school building conditions between students of color and white students is linked to differences in local property tax revenue — and that state building aid narrows the gap in building conditions.”
Researchers found that schools serving predominantly students of color consistently fare worse on measures of building quality than schools serving mostly white students across nearly every dimension examined, including having access to clean classrooms with no excessive noise or vermin, satisfactory ventilation systems, good lighting, and health and recreational facilities.
The main contributing factor is local property tax revenue, which explained nearly one-third of the racial gap in overall school building conditions.
“State building aid works to offset the school condition disparities created by gaps in local property tax capacity,” according to the report. “Without current state support for school construction and renovation, racial disparities in school building conditions would be about 17 percent larger. Although state building aid does not eliminate racial gaps, it plays an important equalizing role.”
To more thoroughly address these gaps, researchers offer several recommendations for state and federal policymakers, including:
- Strengthening targeted building aid for districts serving students with the greatest needs
- Adopting a more progressive capital finance system to ensure that school building quality doesn’t rely so heavily on local property taxes to finance school capital projects
- Improving transparency around school facility conditions by maintaining a statewide school building report or database
- Prioritizing facility improvements most likely to benefit students
