Guilford County Schools Superintendent Sharon Contreras testified this week before the U.S. House Committee on Education and Labor. Her message? Public schools in North Carolina are in dire need of repairs and renovations, and it's time for the federal government to step up.
It's a national problem. According to the federal Government Accountability Office, estimated school repair needs were $112 billion in 1995, and $197 billion in 2014. Contreras' testimony followed an independent audit of Guilford County Schools, which recently recommended $1.5 billion in renovations, replacements, and new construction.
She told members of Congress that states like North Carolina that have large rural counties with little tax base cannot foot the bills alone.
"And that is the compelling reason in my mind for the federal government to step in," says Contreras. "In the same way they stepped in to help the banking industry or the automotive industry, I make the case that they should also help education. After all, school construction is the second largest category of public infrastructure investment, and it is the largest public building sector."
Contreras says that if the money is eventually appropriated for Guilford County Schools, the vast majority of it will go toward deferred maintenance to address the huge backlog of needs that have accumulated due to lack of funds.
She says poor children, who are already dealing with a host of challenges, are the ones who end up in dilapidated schools.
"So, not only do they suffer from food insecurity, homelessness, trauma, toxic stress from violence in their communities, peeling lead paint in their homes, inadequate health care – the list goes on and on," she says. "But then they come to school and they suffer from sitting in classrooms where the roofs are leaking. And then they can't breathe because of the mold in the classrooms. It is profoundly unfair, and we can do better as a nation."