A Brighter Future Through Safe Green Schools for Columbus
Last week was the two-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), a historic law designed to ensure that the United States leads the transition to a green energy future. Across the country, the IRA is helping to lower energy costs, increase climate resiliency, and provide good-paying green energy jobs. To that end, city leaders need to make sure that Columbus is getting its fair share of IRA funding and does not get left behind.
Right now, the Columbus City Schools Board of Education is debating a facilities plan and discussing possible school closures. As part of this process, certain schools will receive much-needed renovations. Thus, it is vital that our School Board and Superintendent Chapman commit to finding and securing every possible dollar that’s available to help lower energy costs and innovate with more efficient energy solutions for our school buildings.
Nationwide, our K-12 school districts spend almost $8 billion annually on energy – the second largest expense category after teacher salaries. The IRA has billions of dollars currently available to reduce those cost, through tax credits and programs like the Renew America's Schools Grants and Justice 40 initiative explicitly dedicated to supporting public schools in communities like ours.
Other districts in Ohio are already getting in on the savings. Cincinnati has recently secured funding to replace 25 of its polluting diesel school buses with zero-emission electric vehicles, and five school districts in Cuyahoga County are set to receive almost a million dollars each to install solar systems. Canton City School District has been awarded more than $11 million to revitalize and restore 15 of its buildings.
Even before the IRA legislation went into effect, the Batesville School District in Arkansas used efficiency upgrades and solar generating systems to turn a $250K budget deficit into a $1.8 million surplus and give long-overdue raises to teachers.
Best of all, most of these projects can be financed at zero direct cost to the district. Under the IRA, up to 50% of energy efficiency projects can be paid for through tax credits, and the remaining costs can be covered by grants and long-term financing based on locked-in future energy savings.
As Dr. Chapman and CCS discuss closing some of our schools, they also need to show us that they’re thinking strategically to move our district forward to a healthier,clean energy future. Columbus has always been a yes-we-can kind of place; we’re already leading the way with innovations from the tech and chip manufacturing boom, to the arts scene and our world-renowned university.
Today and for the foreseeable future, the next big thing is clean energy - to power our schools, save the district money, and liberate us from outdated fossil fuels that pollute our environment and accelerate climate change. Columbus can and must continue to lead the way – with schools that are modernized, safer, and less expensive to operate.
A better future for our schools is on the horizon, including cleaner air, healthier and more comfortable classrooms, carbon-neutral schools, and robust job training programs for our students in the rapidly growing solar and wind energy industries. We just need the leadership to get us there.
