Shanxi Omoniyi | December 18, 2024
(The Lion) — If nothing else, the COVID-19 pandemic should have taught us the danger of trying to confine learning only to institutional classrooms.
Unfortunately, public-school advocates are ignoring this valuable lesson in the latest handwringing over outdated infrastructure.
“Many U.S. public school buildings are in dire need of renovations, as the average age of U.S. school buildings is approximately 49 years, and an estimated 53% have never undergone any major renovations,” the Joint Economic Committee of Congress lamented in a recent brief.
Ironically, nobody seems to be asking the obvious questions. Why should maintaining yesterday’s structures take such priority when they already fail to meet today’s learning needs?
Shouldn’t we “build” instead for tomorrow’s educational solutions – which, as homeschooling and other learning alternatives already prove, can take place outside public-school systems altogether?
‘Stuck’ in buildings too big or small
Readers may assume buildings built in the 1970s would be too small to service today’s bigger student population, but that’s not always the case.
In many districts – particularly rural ones – student populations reached their peak in the 1980s, then dwindled as families migrated elsewhere, according to the digital news magazine EdSurge.
“Schools that were built to accommodate 200 to 250 students now have 70 students, and they can’t afford the opportunity to rebuild the school because of the cost,” said Guy Bliesner, president of the National Council on School Facilities (NCSI). “So they’re stuck using a facility that was built in the ’50s or ’60s, trying to maintain it in an ongoing fashion, and serve the community that’s there now.”
On the other side of the spectrum, growing communities such as Millsboro in Delaware are struggling to fit more students into their already existing schools.
“Both Georgetown Middle and Millsboro Middle School have needed to retrofit existing storage areas into classrooms to meet the needs of their students,” writes Julia Merola, adding Millsboro Middle will eventually be “transitioned” into an elementary school.
“That transition will also cost the district money, as the toilets are too big for younger students, the furniture isn’t set up for kindergarteners and there is no playground.”
‘More pressing need’ of education going unmet?
This list of infrastructure woes just keeps growing, culminating in a classic tale of school “haves and have-nots,” according to Merola.
“A first-of-its-kind statewide evaluation of school buildings completed this year by the Delaware Department of Education has identified more than 1,200 needed repairs, ranging from minor issues such as cosmetic deterioration to major needs like leaking roofs, outdated dehumidifiers, malfunctioning air conditioning, and more.”
Brandon T. Payne, executive director of NCSI, hastens to excuse this “significant backlog of deferred maintenance” because “we had the more pressing need of educating the students.”
Perhaps – if we could prove students are getting an effective education in the first place.
Unfortunately, our current system has already failed to prepare the next generation for the real world.
In perhaps the latest example of educational incompetence, students nationwide are scoring significantly lower on international math and science tests.
Since test outcomes can help predict future economic success, analysts warn this could affect graduates’ earning potential and the nation’s financial well-being.
“While over a dozen countries have made gains, our students are falling behind – by alarming margins,” said Keri Rodrigues, president of National Parents Union. “It’s time for our leaders to step up, prioritize meaningful reforms, and demand real accountability in our schools.”
Against this backdrop of dismal academic performance, the argument to lavish yet more taxpayer money just on building maintenance rings increasingly hollow – especially compared to the success of alternative educational solutions.
‘This is the only way, right?’
Homeschooling – perhaps the oldest and most “traditional” form of education – provides valuable insights into the ease and effectiveness of learning anywhere, anytime.
Before the 1800s, most parents in America and worldwide simply taught their children as part of their family’s everyday routine.
Compulsory education didn’t factor into the equation until the 1830s, and it often faced intense opposition from parents and local communities.
Now with the resurgence of homeschooling, more parents are beginning to recover this lost legacy of family-led education.
Take just one example – Erika Serrano, who withdrew her daughter from her Massachusetts public school to enroll her in a homeschool program hosted in a predominantly Hispanic church.
“I grew up in the public school system,” she said. “I raised my daughter mostly in the public school system. That’s all I knew, but I knew I needed to shift. I was so scared because you think this is the only way, right? But then I said, ‘Wait a minute, there are so many other ways that our kids could be educated.’”
These “low-cost, church-based learning centers” are catapulting the next generation of homeschoolers into sustainable educational models to capitalize on already-existing spaces for learning.
Working to modernize educational frameworks
Microschools, another natural outgrowth of homeschooling, also offer important lessons in meeting this challenge for space and growth.
Florida recently instituted a policy allowing private schools to use existing facilities under current land-use and zoning regulations, which microschool proponents championed as a way to “modernize” educational frameworks.
“They’re only serving 30, 40, maybe 50 families,” said Nathan Hoffman, senior legislative director for the Foundation for Florida’s Future, about microschools. “They’re not serving hundreds of families. The size of the buildings that are necessary, the land that’s necessary, is not going to be the same.”
Contrast this agile, adaptive, innovative approach with the cumbersome, costly and increasingly futile endeavors of public schools to shore up 1970s-era buildings for the 21st century.
If public-school bureaucracies can always bloat their infrastructure budgets, what incentive do they have to innovate?
Let’s have policymakers and the public allow for education to take place in any setting – at workplaces or field trips, in churches or community centers, and even (or especially!) in homes.
This article was made available to EdNews Virginia via The Lion, a publication of the Herzog Foundation.