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Politics & Government

State Schools Chief: Modernize California Schools

Modernizing aging school buildings, or replacing them altogether, must be done to meet the needs of the next generation, according to the state schools chief.


California's public schools need ongoing capital investments to ensure safe, adequate and educationally appropriate learning environments for students, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said in Oakland this week.
  
Torlakson said he agrees with a new report by the University of California at Berkeley's Center for Cities and Schools that says the state should focus on updating and replacing aging school buildings with schools that are designed to be more environmentally-friendly and better suited to the needs of the next generation of students.
  
Jeff Vincent, the center's deputy director and the lead author of the 60-page report, said the state's schools need to be upgraded because many facilities are "energy-deficient and technology-deficient."
  
Torlakson said many schools waste energy because they are inefficient and modernizing them and making them more energy-efficient could save up to $2 billion annually.
  
Torlakson said modernizing schools also will make them "welcoming and conducive to education" and send a message to the state's 6.1 million students in public schools from kindergarten through 12th grade that "we value education."
  
He said, "Every dollar we invest in our school facilities is a dollar that can change the future of our state."
  
The UC Berkeley report says that about $117 billion from a variety of sources, including local and state sources, will be needed over the next decade to update existing schools, build new schools, eliminate a backlog in deferred maintenance and pay for preventative maintenance.

--Bay City News

 

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