Skip to main content
Add as a preferred source on Google

NAFIS Supports Legislation to Invest in School Infrastructure

  • 09/19/18

Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Federally Impacted Schools (NAFIS) strongly supports new legislation that invests in the facilities of federally impacted school districts. H.R. 6830, the Impact Aid Infrastructure Act, was introduced earlier this week by Representative Tom O’Halleran (D-AZ). It would provide a one-time infusion of $1 billion into the Impact Aid Construction program to address the significant backlog of infrastructure projects in these districts.

Federally impacted school districts are located on or near nontaxable Federal property, including military installations; Indian Trust, Treaty and Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act lands; Federal low-income housing facilities; and national parks, national laboratories and other Federal buildings and property. Because of the presence of the Federal government, these districts may have minimal assessed land value or few local taxpayers. Therefore, they have minimal capacity to raise funds for school construction in the way that most public school districts do – through bonds – and many lack the local resources needed to address urgent facilities needs.

A recent NAFIS survey identified more than $4.2 billion in pressing construction projects in 218 federally impacted school districts nationwide, including emergency repairs for health and safety – such roof and foundation maintenance, asbestos abatement, mold remediation and fixing fire code violations – and modernization and expansion needs. A large majority cited lack of funds as a reason to defer these projects.

“The Federal government has a clear obligation to ensure that federally impacted school districts and the students they educate are not disadvantaged by its presence,” said NAFIS Executive Director Hilary Goldmann. “There has been Impact Aid construction funding since the program’s inception in 1950, but it is – and for decades has been – woefully inadequate. This legislation is an important and necessary step in the right direction.” 

In addition to established precedent for Federal investment in federally impacted school facilities, the expertise to review, distribute and monitor the proposed funding already exists within the Impact Aid Program Office at the U.S. Department of Education.

For additional information on the facilities needs of federally impacted school districts, read Foundations for Learning: The Facilities Needs of Federally Impacted Schools (2017).

Featured

  • How a Portable Sink Helped an Art Classroom Run More Smoothly

    Classroom design decisions can have outsized effects on instructional time and safety at schools juggling mismatched infrastructure, strict budgets, and crowded schedules — particularly in the arts. Between spilled paint and dirty brushes, art classes run smoother with a sink in the studio. But many schools don’t have a sink in every art classroom.

  • Texas Recruitment

    Texas Recruitment

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. The University of Texas at Austin's Texas Recruitment has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Grand Prize award in the category of Renovation.

  • How Proactive Maintenance Can Transform Athletic Facilities into Strategic Assets for College Sports

    College athletics is entering one of the most transformative periods in its history. With NIL reshaping financial models and competitive expectations, athletic departments across the country are being asked to do more than ever with increasingly constrained resources.

  • St. John Fisher University

    Classroom Revitalization – Basil Hall Room 216

    Established in 1999, the Education Design Showcase is a vehicle for showing off innovative — yet practical — solutions in planning, design, architecture, and construction. St. John Fisher University's Basil Hall Room 216 Classroom Revitalization has been recognized with an EDS 2026 Project of Distinction award in the category of Spaces.