by Jbs010609a3 — January 7, 2009—The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) recently released two new reports, one on green school buildings and the other on funding infrastructure projects, as a part of its two-year “Building Minds, Minding Buildings” campaign.
Building Minds, Minding Buildings: Our Union’s Road Map to Green and Sustainable Schools is an AFT-developed guide to building and maintaining schools in ways that are healthy, environmentally responsible and cost-efficient. The guide explains why going green is a union issue, what makes a school green, important health and productivity issues, and ways to save costs.
School Infrastructure Funding Need: A State-by-State Assessment and an Analysis of Recent Court Cases is an external study that tracks the current level of school infrastructure funding in all 50 states. The report shows that total school infrastructure funding need is substantial, totaling some $254.6 billion. The publication also makes policy recommendations to address the funding need at the federal and state level.
AFT says these reports are the latest efforts in the organization’s long push to reverse “deplorable” conditions in the nation’s schools. The release of the reports coincides with President-elect Obama’s recent call to improve the physical and technological infrastructure of US schools as part of a stimulus plan to jumpstart the economy.
The reports can be downloaded from the AFT Web site.
