No More Excuses. End Toxic Schools Now
The money is there. Is the courage?
With a projected state budget surplus of more than $3 billion and more than $7 billion in federal aid idled by inaction, Senate & House Democrats gathered in front of local schools across Pennsylvania Friday to call for immediate release of funds to end the scourge of toxic and dilapidated school buildings in Pennsylvania.
$3B in State Surplus
“We are here to put an end to the excuses,” state Sen. Vincent Hughes, D-Philadelphia, Montgomery said outside the century-old Overbrook High School where students go without water in science labs and duck pieces falling from the auditorium ceiling. “It’s budget season and the annual excuses that have kept our children trapped in toxic schools are as old and worn as the schools themselves. Enough. We have the resources to end this embarrassment right now.”
Elected officials and local leaders in three corners of the commonwealth talked about how widespread health and safety concerns affect school districts large and small across the commonwealth, where school infrastructure has caused illness and even death to those who are forced to occupy them every day.
$7.3B in American Rescue Plan Funds
Democrats are seeking immediate investment in schools across the Pennsylvania, one of only 22 states that has failed to remove lead from school drinking water and where infrastructure has been rated C- by the American Society of Civil Engineers.
For more on toxic schools, click here.