Press Releases

Payne Votes for Legislation to Help Modernize NJ’s School Facilities

Bill Would Also Revive Struggling Construction Industry, Fight Global Warming, and Improve Education

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne, senior member of the House Education and Labor Committee, today voted for legislation that would help renovate and modernize public schools in New Jersey and around the country.

By a vote of 250 to 164, the House passed the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act (H.R. 3021), which provides funding to states and school districts to help ensure that school facilities and learning environments are safe, healthy, energy-efficient, environmentally friendly, and technologically advanced. The legislation includes over $132 million in funding for physical improvement projects for New Jersey schools.

“According to recent estimates, America’s public schools are hundreds of billions of dollars short of the funding needed to bring them into good condition,” Payne said.   “This bill not only ensures that schools receive the necessary funding to improve their facilities but also reduces their carbon footprint.”

While Congress provided $1.2 billion in funding for emergency school repairs in 2001, and provided additional resources for schools devastated by Hurricane Katrina and Rita, the Bush administration has not provided direct funding for general school construction in any of its budgets over the last eight years. As a result, schools have been forced to rely mostly on state and local funding for any repair or renovation projects.

Overall, H.R. 3021 would authorize $6.4 billion for school renovation and modernization projects for fiscal year 2009, and would ensure that school districts quickly receive funds for projects that improve schools’ teaching and learning climates, health and safety, and energy efficiency. To further encourage energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources in schools, the bill would require that the majority of funds for school improvement projects meet widely recognized green building standards and would provide states with funds to help schools track their facilities’ needs, energy use, and carbon footprints, among other things.

In the Gulf Coast, where public schools still face hundreds of millions of dollars unmet need in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the legislation would authorize separate funds – half a billion dollars over five years – for schools.

In addition, the legislation would bring immediate benefits to workers in the nation’s construction industry – one of the sectors hit hardest by the recent economic downturn – and would ensure fair wages and benefits for workers by applying Davis-Bacon protections to all grants awarded for school improvement projects. 

For more information on H.R. 3021, click here.

The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act is supported by a broad coalition of organizations, including the AFL-CIO, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the American Federation of Teachers, the American Association of School Administrators, the Building and Construction Trades Department of the AFL-CIO, the California Small School Districts Association, Californians for School Facilities, the Council of the Great City Schools, the Green Building Initiative, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the International Union of Bricklayers and Allied Craftworkers, the International Union of Operating Engineers, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades, the Mason Contractors Association of America, the National Association of Elementary School Principals, the National Association of Secondary School Principals, the National Education Association, the National School Boards Association, the United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry of the United States and Canada, the Parent Teacher Association, the Rebuild America’s Schools Coalition, and the U.S. Green Building Council.

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