Washington D.C. - May 18, 2022––The [Re]Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC), a diverse alliance of education, civic, labor, health, and industry organizations, applauds Chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, Bobby Scott, for his ongoing commitment to rebuilding America's public schools. This morning, the Committee held a hybrid markup of several bills, including the Rebuild America’s Schools Act (RASA), which if enacted would provide $100 billion in direct grants to modernize school facilities in our nation’s poorest districts. The bill makes minor improvements to the text included in the Build Back Better Act, which passed the House a few months ago.
Mary Filardo, the Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund and founder of BASIC stated: "We very much appreciate the continued persistence of Chairman Scott in highlighting the fact that districts in our poorest communities are in urgent need of federal support to repair and modernize school facilities, which are attended by millions of children and faculty each day. No child or educator should have to spend 8 hours a day in a school that is a health and safety hazard.”
She continued, “It is time that Congress and the Administration established a federal role in making our schools a safe place to learn and work, especially given the role they play in preparing our nation’s future workforce. The decades of neglect of elementary and secondary facilities will not be addressed without local, state, and federal efforts that are well-informed, carefully planned, effectively managed, and adequately funded over a sustained period of time– at least 10-15 years. States and locals are already doing their very best, but they cannot do it alone without the federal government.”
The Biden-Harris Administration is starting to take long overdue steps to increase the federal role in modernizing our public schools to protect the health and safety of our school children but more is urgently needed. Enacting, and fully funding, RASA would be an important step forward in establishing a limited, but necessary, federal role in modernizing school facilities. BASIC appreciates Chairman Scott for his relentless advocacy and support for the need to enact a stand-alone program that would address the urgent need to support districts by providing direct grants for capital improvements and major infrastructure projects that will make schools a safer and healthier place to learn, which research shows has a direct impact on student achievement and well-being.
BASIC calls on the Ways and Means Committee to immediately pass the bill out of their committee and urges Speaker Pelosi to bring this bill to the floor for consideration as soon as possible as the 50 million students and 6 million staff in 100,000 public schools cannot wait any longer for this urgent legislation to be passed.
