State Policy
Priority Actions for Systemic Reform
Cross-Sector Working Groups Generate Proposals. In 2016 a research team from the 21st Century School Fund (21CSF) and the Center for Cities + Schools @ University of California @ Berkeley facilitated a structured process to identify the challenges to adequacy and equity in PK–12 infrastructure and to propose reforms. The National Council on School Facilities was an integral partner during this process. A diverse group of 85 non-profit advocacy leaders, local and state officials, researchers, industry professionals, labor advocates, and finance experts from 33 states participated.
process used to propose system reforms and set priority actions
Cross Sector Input
On December 7th, 2016, the working group members, including 9 state facility officials from the NCSF convened in Washington, D.C. for the Mapping Equity into PK–12 Infrastructure National Summit. Participants were divided into eight cross-sector groups and asked to arrive at group consensus on 5–7 priority proposed actions that they believed would have the greatest potential to remedy inadequacy and inequity in the PK–12 infrastructure sector and are most able to be replicated, developed, and scaled.
Criteria for 55 Priority Actions: At least one group at the National Summit prioritized the proposed action AND State officials rated the action on Condition / Equity / Affordability Impact with a score>34
Through the process, 200 proposals were generated, with 55 local, state and federal actions prioritized. The process and recommendations are described in a report: Adequate & Equitable U.S. PK–12 Infrastructure: Priority Actions for Systemic Reform and the recommendations can be viewed by working group and by level at which the recommended policy action takes place.
State Facility Officials’ Input
The 200 proposals generated by the working groups were reviewed by state school facility officials at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the National Council on School Facilities (NCSF), in Washington, D.C. NCSF members spent two days discussing, assessing, and scoring the findings and proposals generated by the working groups. NCSF participants individually scored each state, federal, and national proposed action along four criteria: potential to positively affect the condition of school facilities; potential to positively affect the equity of access to adequate public school facilities; potential to positively affect the affordability of delivering adequate public school facilities; and the perceived difficulty to implement.
