Advocating for an MSBA Special Commission

On June 12, UndauntedK12 joined a powerful group of organizations to advocate for the creation of a Special Commission to study the Massachusetts School Building Authority, a quasi-independent agency under the purview of the State Treasurer, Deborah Goldberg.

The proposed commission would take on the interrelated issues of equitable and adequate funding for school facilities, policies to support healthy schools, and policies to advance the state’s environmental and greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals in schools. With 186 million square feet of buildings, schools represent the largest form of public building space in Massachusetts.

The associations representing Superintendents, School Committees, School Business Officers and Facilities Administrators joined the American Federation of Teachers-Massachusetts and the Massachusetts Teachers Association in requesting that the Legislature create the Special Commission as part of the FY 2024 Budget. Several national and local climate groups including Acadia Center, Boston Climate Action Network, Green Energy Consumers Alliance, the Massachusetts Building Electrification Accelerator, Rewiring America and The 2035 Initiative added their voices recognizing the need to solve for equitable funding in order to meet our building decarbonization and climate justice objectives.

The proposal to create this Commission could not be more timely. In two recent features, the Boston Globe highlighted both the inequitable funding for school facilities that results in low levels of investment in schools serving students of color in urban communities and the agency’s continued funding of new fossil fuel infrastructure in schools in direct contradiction to the state’s climate law. 

Andrew O’Leary, Assistant Superintendent from New Bedford Public Schools, a district supporting the creation of an MSBA Special Commission wrote: “The cost burden facing environmental justice communities is real. Healthy, green schools are feasible, but we need the MSBA to create a realistic on-ramp for districts serving the most at-risk students.”