School facilities are an important part of raising student performance. We must immediately begin repairing, expanding, and modernizing our nation's crumbling school buildings and turn them into first-rate educational facilities. Today, the average public school is 42 years old, and one-third of all public schools nationwide are in need of major repair or replacement.

Inferior facilities make teaching more difficult. We simply cannot expect 21st century students to learn and thrive in 19th-century buildings. That is why Democrats are fighting to modernize the nation's schools.

New tax credit for school modernization projects. According to a recent report from the National Education Association, it will cost $322 billion to bring the existing public schools into overall good condition. Billions more will be required to construct new schools to meet expanding student enrollments. Democrats have proposed a new federal tax credit that will pay the interest on $25.2 billion of school modernization bonds, to give communities the resources they need.