As Labor Day marks the end of summer and beginning of another school year, citizens presume that teachers are ready, but they may wonder if school buildings are, too.
The District’s public schools have faced this question annually, and owing to a history of insufficient funding coupled with chronic mismanagement, the answer usually has been “no.” As schools opened this week, however, strong leadership from Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, the D.C. Council and Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee may have changed the answer to “mostly yes.”
But this question about school buildings is symptomatic of a national problem. It illuminates America’s persistent unwillingness to invest what it takes to create, operate and maintain public infrastructure, of which schools are a vital component.
Physically dysfunctional school buildings, like defective bridges and roadways or deteriorating water and sewer systems, ultimately are attributable to misguided policies and spending priorities.