Repairing America's Schools - Impact of the American Jobs Act in the Bay Area

American Jobs Act Fact Sheet:

The President is proposing that we invest $30 billion in enhancing the condition of our nation’s public schools and community colleges.  This money would fund a range of critical repairs and needed renovation projects that would put hundreds of thousands of Americans – construction workers, engineers, maintenance staff, boiler repair, and electrical workers – back to work.  And it will help modernize at least 35,000 public schools – from science labs and internet-ready classroom upgrades to renovated facilities.

The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) awarded the United States a ‘D’ for the condition of its public school infrastructure.  The average public school building in the United States is over 40 years old, and many are much older. 

Schools spend over $6 billion annually on their energy bills, more than they spend on computers and textbooks combined.  Hands-on STEM education is critical for our children to be prepared for the jobs of the future, and yet 43 states reported that one-third or more of their schools do not meet all of the functional requirements necessary to effectively teach laboratory science.

The cost of maintaining nearly 100,000 public schools and facilities in good repair is substantial for already overstretched districts.  The accumulated backlog of deferred maintenance and repair amounts to at least $270 billion.  For children in the nation’s poorest districts, these deferred projects too often mean schools with crumbling ceilings, overcrowded classrooms, and classrooms without basic wiring infrastructure for technology needed for students to master 21st century skills.

 For California's schools, which have been under tight budgets for years as politicians have waged tax battles, the Jobs Act would allocate  nearly three billion dollars ($ 2812.6M)  for K-12 infrastructure repairs and renovation. This investment would support an estimated 36,600 jobs. For community colleges, the Act would allocate an estimated one billion, one hundred & thirty-one million dollars.

In the Bay Area, the benefit to the Oakland  Unified School District would be an investment of 42.4 million dollars in local school infrastructure.  San Francisco would get nearly 30 million in projected school repair funding.

This newly proposed jobs act is a critical source of infrastructure investment in one of our most important strategic resources - the education of our young people.  It is imperative that Congress pass the bill...now!