The United States maintains approximately 98,000 public schools, hosting over 49 million students. (National Organization of Educational Statistics and de Brey). About 45% of today's public schools were built between 1950 and 1969, making many of these buildings nearly 75 years old. (Rowan) Public schools are typically constructed as permanent buildings not meant for constant updates, making most schools today be typically maintained by aged systems. A vital system used in educational facilities across the country is the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning system, otherwise known as HVAC. These systems ensure consistency in the air quality that hundreds of students share amongst each other, which draws only more concern as 30% of public schools hold poor ratings in the HVAC aspect of their facilities.

In our lifetimes, we spend about a decade as students, attending for about eight hours every day. The school environment is suggested to play a great role in the health of a student as a “social determinant of health”, having a great impact on health disparities that may exist in a community. (Huang et al.)With the ongoing pandemic, students have been impacted greatly, being removed from these important spaces as well as having to return to a new standard of cleanliness and health precautions (“Science Brief: Transmission of SARS-CoV-2 in K-12 Schools and Early Care and Education Programs -Updated”)). Pursuing this issue allows the creation of technology that can help ease outbreaks and allow for reinvestment into other sectors of education, easing the burden of infrastructure

Throughout COVID-19, the impact of education was made more apparent by the great emotional and mental strain noted by the isolation from peers, mentors, and social collaboration. Now that students are returning to their regular education, it seems we’re all more understanding of the importance of clean, quality air.(Godoy) Stated previously, inadequate air quality allows the potential for transmission of disease –note that COVID-19 is an airborne virus. Using improvements to air sanitation systems, we can work to prevent closures, and keep students healthy.(“The U.S. Needs to Help Schools Clean the Air and Save Energy”)Investments in improving buildings and providing better access to services can be made more efficient by pushing smaller-scale solutions rather than attempting to make greater changes to systems optimized for decade-old technology.(Barnum)

Schools with especially small budgets must make difficult decisions as to where funding should be prioritized. Expensive building costs can take up large portions of a school’s budget, meaning reduced funds for educational technology, student enrichment, and more. Further justifying the means for an economic solution to this infrastructure problem.