Washington , D.C. With an urgent need to renovate and repair school facilities across the country, Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-3) backed the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act (H.R. 3021). The bipartisan legislation, of which DeLauro is a cosponsor, would invest $6.4 billion in modernizing public school buildings around the country over $53 million for physical improvement projects for Connecticuts schools and would encourage energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources in schools. Modernizing school buildings would also create jobs in the construction industry, one of the industries hit hardest by the recent economic downturn. The bill was approved by the House late Wednesday by a bipartisan vote of 250-164.

Research shows a correlation between school facility quality and student achievement. Yet according to recent estimates, America s schools are hundreds of billions of dollars short of the funding needed to ensure that every child attends a high-quality facility. Despite the need to modernize school buildings, since 2001 the federal government has provided almost no direct aid to help states and schools pay for school construction and repair. 

Parents should know that that when they send their children to school, those buildings are safe and healthy learning environments.  With this legislation we will provide critical dollars to modernize our school facilities and make them more energy efficient and reliant on renewable sources of energy. For example, other schools would have funds to follow Branford Highs pioneering effort and install more efficient power plants, said DeLauro.  Our schools are not only the key to our childrens future, but are also part of the solution to the global warming crisis.

Branford High School recently switched to a new tri-generation power plant that will allow the school to simultaneously generate its own power, heat and air conditioning. This new plant, the first system of its type to go online anywhere, is also more efficient up to 90 percent efficient, compared with as little as 33 percent efficiency from generation to use in schools with standard power plants.

This legislation will help our schools and protect the environment by:

       Dedicating the majority of funds to projects that meet green building standards.

       Saving the average green school $100,000 each year in reduced energy and water costs.

       Providing states with funding to develop a plan to create a statewide database of schools facilities, energy use, carbon footprint, and a school energy efficiency quality plan.

       Requiring the Secretary of Education, in consultation with the Secretary of Energy and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, to create a database of the best practices in school construction, including green school construction, and to provide technical assistance regarding best practices.

       Improving the ventilation, day lighting and indoor air quality of schools, which research has shown to boost academic performance, concentration and student achievement.

       Reducing absences due to illness caused by indoor pollutants like asthma, which is the cause of more than fourteen million missed school days each year.