Sutton Leads Effort to Green Our Schools

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to rise today in strong support of H.R. 3021, The 21st Century Green High-performing Public School Facilities Act. This legislation is important and groundbreaking because it simultaneously addresses important issues confronting our nation in the 21st century. Improving our education system, modernizing our buildings and infrastructure to be environmentally sustainable, and creating jobs to grow our economy.

Mr. Speaker, our nation's school districts are struggling to make essential improvements during these lean economic times. According to recent estimates, schools are hundreds of billions of dollars short of the funding needed to ensure that every student attends a high-quality facility. Too many parents across this country are forced to drop off their children at schools that are falling apart. Schools with leaking roofs and faulty electrical systems. Schools without dated technology which compromises their ability to achieve and succeed.

Our bill provides $33.2 billion over five years for schools across the country for projects to modernize renovate and repair their facilities. This funding is crucial to improve our schools so that the students have a healthy and safe environment in which to learn and develop the knowledge and the skills necessary to compete in today's work force. H.R. 3021 also addresses disparities in school facilities' funding. It directs the secretary of education to distribute funds to school districts according to the same need-based formula used under title 1 of the elementary and secondary education act, which provides funding for low-income school districts.

Funding provided in this bill can be used for energy efficiency and technology improvements, asbestos removal and lead abatement, and for ensuring that schools are prepared for emergencies. The funding is provided with few restrictions, which will allow individual schools to satisfy their individual needs. Renovating schools so that they are environmentally sustainable will provide numerous health and educational benefits for students.

Increasing air quality and lighting will enhance our students' ability to focus and learn while reducing student sick days and improving the health of students with asthma and other respiratory problems. Green schools also cost about 2% less than conventional schools while providing financial benefits that are 20 times as large, utilizing 33% energy and 32% less water than traditional schools.

Enabling students to attend environmentally sustainable schools not only ensures a healthy learning environment, it will also naturally facilitate environmental literacy in our youth. This will help our children grow into stewards of our environment and natural resources that we must treasure and preserve for future generations.

Unfortunately, many schools in my district and across the Nation are also forced to address difficult security challenges. For example, Brunswick High School in my district is the largest single-level high school building in Ohio, stretching a quarter of a mile from end to end with 60 entrances. As you can imagine, this presents a formidable security challenge for teachers and administrators.

For these reasons, Congresswoman McCarthy and I have worked to include a provision in the manager's amendment for this legislation that will allow schools to improve building infrastructure to accommodate security measures and security doors.

This bill authorizes $100 million a year through 2013 specifically for public schools in the gulf coast that are still working to rebuild from the devastation that Hurricanes Katrina and Rita wrought three years ago.

Families in the gulf coast are still fighting to recover and to put their lives back together. Mr. Speaker, we must continue to devote extra resources so that those schools and those communities can rebuild.

School modernization is the central purpose of 3021. Equally important and necessary is the essential economic stimulus that this bill will provide by creating more than 100,000 new jobs for American workers who design and build schools, from roofing contractors, construction workers and electricians, to architects and engineers. It's estimated that this bill will result in the creation of nearly 4,000 jobs in my home State of Ohio in 2009 alone.

Mr. Speaker, in these challenging economic times, important and innovative legislation such as this bill will go a long way to creating new opportunities for America's workforce. Passing this bill will enable school districts to upgrade their facilities and lead our Nation's students towards a brighter and healthier future while addressing the job crisis we face today.