Europeans spend up to 90% of their lives indoors, according to official estimates. Yet while outdoor air pollution has become a familiar public concern, the air inside our homes, schools and workplaces has largely gone unnoticed.

That is changing. Researchers across Europe are investigating what is really in indoor air, how it affects our health and what can be done about it.

“Since the COVID-19 pandemic, we have heard more about indoor air quality because people have become aware that aerosols could transport viruses,” said Jose Fermoso, a chemical engineer at Spanish research centre CARTIF and coordinator of K-HEALTHinAIR, one of seven EU-funded projects working together to investigate indoor air quality.

School districts spent about $214 billion, or about 22% of their budget, on operations and maintenance, capital improvements and bond interest expenses in the 2024-25 school year, according to GAO, which based the funding estimates on U.S. Census Bureau data. 

Officials in more than half of the districts say their budget is insufficient to meet their schools’ maintenance and repair needs, and although using bond proceeds is a way to narrow the funding gap, it’s hard to secure money that way, especially if the area doesn’t have a high enough tax base to support it, the report said. “A low local tax base hindered efforts to fund school facility needs in about half of districts (an estimated 55 percent), with the highest rate among rural districts,” the report said. 

BOISE, Idaho — Student enrollment is dropping across the Gem State as birth rates decline – a shift that forces some Idaho school districts to consider closing facilities to avoid financial downfalls. 

The Boise School District (BSD) is in the process of putting together its 10-year facilities master plan, a roadmap to how the district wants to use its buildings in the future. 

Wake County voters will decide on a $680 million school bond this November, about $49 million of which will go toward heating, ventilation and air conditioning replacements at 21 schools.

The loan would increase property taxes by $4.10 for every $100,000 in property value. The county often borrows money via bonds that aren’t approved by voters, but it gets lower interest rates when voters approve of tax increases that back that borrowing.

Sustainability is no longer a standalone initiative for education institutions. It shapes governance, capital planning, risk management and long-term campus strategy. As expectations around environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities, operational efficiency and reporting grow, schools need a clearer view of how their campuses are performing. That starts with data.

That was one of the clearest messages from our recent webinar with experts across education, sustainability, building performance and connected technologies: schools cannot manage what they cannot see. Whether the goal is reducing energy consumption, improving asset performance, enhancing occupant comfort or preparing for future reporting requirements, better decisions depend on reliable data.

THOUSANDS of students will have their schools shut down as families protest the change.The change will be in effect for the 2027-28 school year.The Boulder Valley School District, which encompasses the area of Boulder, Colorado, is set to overhaul several middle and high schools due to declining enrollment.

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — The Boise School District held a virtual meeting on Wednesday to discuss future plans for school facilities across the district.

The main driver of this discussion is concern over declining enrollment within the district. Tracy Richter, the Boise School District's facilities planning consultant, says that the decline has reached into the thousands.

"In the last five years alone, the district has a thousand less elementary kids," Richter said. "Right now, the district has about 9,000 surplus seats in the district and about 5,000 of those with the elementary grade level. That's a lot of space to maintain with no students in it."

Research shows that the physical conditions of school buildings affect student learning, which is why Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are pushing to bring new life — and federal funding — to aging schools across the Commonwealth and the country.

Their School Infrastructure Modernization Act would expand federal historic tax credits, helping school districts partner with private developers to renovate aging and historic buildings — while keeping them open as schools.

More than 200 Commissioners from over 40 countries, including many of the world’s most distinguished scientists, public health luminaries, technical experts, building practitioners, business leaders and advocates working to advance healthy indoor air, collaborated over the past year to develop the Global Framework for Action.

The far-reaching roadmap sets out nine interconnected levers of market transformation, 40 strategic focus areas and nearly 180 recommendations to drive systemic change and deliver healthier indoor air at scale.

LOGAN COUNTY, Ky. — Logan County voters will decide in November whether to approve a proposed 5.9-cent “nickel tax” to help fund school construction, repairs, renovations and maintenance.

The Logan County Board of Education approved the ballot language for the proposed levy during a special called meeting in August.

The measure would levy 5.9 cents for every $100 of assessed value of real and personal property.

A new state law allowing localities to raise revenue for school construction has opened opportunities but also raised questions, with some local leaders and lawmakers asking if it could create funding shortfalls for localities that approve the measure.

Right before the July 1 deadline, Virginia passed a budget that included language allowing localities, pending voter support, to raise a 1% sales tax primarily to cover school construction due to unprecedented costs. 

A series of severe weather events this year brought more than $212 million in damage to public infrastructure across the state, according to preliminary figures from the Hawaii Emergency Management Agency.

That figure doesn’t include state Department of Education estimates of an additional $174.5 million in storm-related school repair, maintenance and recovery needs.

The Yakima school district went 16 years without asking voters to pass a construction bond. This spring, it finally did, and the measure passed by a hair, just over Washington state’s 60 percent supermajority threshold for approving bonds.

“We live in a community that’s very high-poverty,” Superintendent Trevor Greene said, “and for a community to tax itself is a lot to ask.”

Now, the work the bond is paying for is visible: Crews have repaved parking lots and begun upgrading playgrounds, and the district of more than 15,000 students is choosing a contractor to replace two aging elementary schools, which will be the district’s first new elementary school buildings in a generation.

Salina Intermediate and Elementary schools in Dearborn unveiled two new playgrounds on Sept. 16 as part of the Green Schoolyard initiative. These schools now have open outdoor spaces with trees, natural play structures, a pavilion, and a rain garden to help offset noise and pollution from a nearby steel factory near the Dearborn Works and the Ford Rouge Complex, which sit about 800 feet from the 100-year-old schools.

"If you look at Salina Elementary and Intermediate School, it's less than 800 ft away from a steel factory, and so this is a prime example of how, how you want to utilize green infrastructure to help improve the air quality so our children can learn and our teachers can do what they do best," said Dearborn Mayor Abdullah Hammoud, according to WXYZ.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee, alongside Senators Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Alex Padilla (D-CA), and Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), introduced the Protecting Our Students in Schools Act, legislation to federally prohibit corporal punishment in any school that receives federal funding.

“No child should ever face physical abuse, including at school,” said Senator Kaine. “It's time to end the outdated and harmful practice of corporal punishment in every school across the country. Instead of relying on fear, our schools should provide safe, supportive learning environments that students need to thrive and be healthy.”

As the Detroit school district marks the end of its first month of the 2026-27 school year, more than half of its schools now have full air conditioning throughout the building, according to Superintendent Nikolai Vitti.

Vitti gave an update on Detroit Public Schools Community District’s ongoing project to modernize its HVAC systems at Tuesday’s board meeting. The investment is part of the district’s $700 million facility master plan, which was implemented in 2022. The plan includes rebuilding, reopening, or demolishing certain schools. DPSCD received the money for the project through one-time federal COVID relief funding. In 2018, about 34% of schools had full air conditioning, Vitti said.

Guam Department of Education Superintendent Judith Won Pat, in response to requests by both the Guam Legislature and the Guam Education Board, uploaded a comprehensive list that shows a school's age, square footage, and what it would cost to fix or replace what is bad.

The list can be found here: https://www.gdoe.net/District/Department/19-Guam-Education-Board/1844-Reporting-Requirements.html.

Each of the schools under DOE's purview has a list that identifies the various parts of  the school's campus, the year it was built, and what the school needs in dollars for 2026.

Voters went to the polls for a special school election on Sept. 15, to vote on school construction questions. 

Statewide, the New Jersey School Boards Association learned of six boards of education with proposals on the ballot.  

Under the Educational Facilities and Construction and Financing Act of 2000, the state will fund at least 40% of eligible school construction costs through annual debt service aid. 

Seven Kentucky school building projects sit unfinished, waiting on the General Assembly to provide the final 50% of money promised to school districts who have outdated and unsafe facilities, superintendents told lawmakers on the Joint Interim Committee on Education.

Asking for a promised $102.9 million to replace some buildings constructed between the 1920s and 1950s, the superintendents said in a written presentation that the seven districts “represent Kentucky’s backbone — communities that have stretched every local dollar, met every state requirement, and trusted the General Assembly to honor its commitment. The final 50% is not just a budget line. It is a promise kept.”

Charter schools in South Carolina will soon have the ability to apply for public funds to finance school construction projects, a development that one leading advocate described as a “game changer” for the growing sector. The state budget approved last month sets aside $75 million for rural and charter school capital projects and establishes a formal structure for evaluating and prioritizing the facility needs of public schools across the state.