EDmarket applauds House leadership for including school infrastructure funding in the proposed economic stimulus package (HR2) introduced by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on June 18. If appropriated, the funding would infuse $100 billion over 5 years in direct grants for school facilities to the highest-need districts. EDmarket joined the education community in urging action.
Adding federal support to local and state efforts to modernize and build our public school infrastructure is long overdue. With these federal funds our states and districts will be able to make progress on four pressing issues that confront public education:
1. Opening our schools in a safe and healthy manner during this health crisis.
2. Creating jobs in hard-hit communities.
3. Addressing the structural inequities of school financing that short-change low wealth and high- need school districts.
4. Building the next generation of resilient and sustainable public schools.
"The passage of HR2 will make it possible to take immediate steps to open and operate our facilities safely, and to make long term investments to deliver 21st century facilities for all children," says Mary Filardo, chair of the [Re]Build America's School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC), and Executive Director of the 21st Century School Fund, an EDmarket partner.
"We join the education community in calling on Congress to pass HR2 and for the President to sign it immediately into law," says Jim McGarry, EDmarket President/CEO.
Read the Reopen and Rebuild America's Schools Act fact sheet.
EDmarket is interested in influencing pro-small business and pro-education legislation/regulatory policy that does the following:
