When the 21st Century School Fund was founded in 1994, the DC Public Schools infrastructure was failing. The school system had operated for over twenty years without a long-range facilities plan, had underfunded maintenance and eliminated almost all funding for new construction and facility modernization. In addition, as student enrollment in the District fell, many schools were threatened with closure. Many schools did, in fact, close temporarily due to fire code violations and degrading facilities. On top of these problems, the District was unable to retain permanent leadership that could help set a course to rebuild the school system. From 1995 to 2001, the District went through two mayors, four superintendents, four different governance structures, and four directors of facilities.
In this environment, characterized by crisis management, the 21st Century School Fund (21CSF) was founded to help develop the first facilities master plan in two decades and to support the parents and community members of the Oyster Elementary School who were working to build a new school for their neighborhood. Through our work on these projects we amassed information and expertise on the needs and challenges facing public schools and their communities, and developed skill in understanding and navigating public policy and federal and local government laws. We also developed our own data management and dissemination software programs, Format-PRO® and DCSchoolSearch.com, publications and training tools. We continue to provide technical advice, advocacy, information, policy analysis, and development to other districts and non-profit organizations.
The 21st Century School Fund was part of the Ford Foundation’s Constituency Building Initiative of 1996-2001. In 2001, the 21st Century School Fund expanded its focus to include urban public school facilities nationwide. This work was done through the Building Educational Success Together (BEST) collaborative, a Ford Foundation funded initiative to advance equity and excellence in public schooling. The 21st Century School Fund lead the learning community. The BEST partners were a diverse group of local and national leaders with experience in educational reform, school finance, community development, social justice advocacy, historic preservation, community engagement, academic research and philanthropy. Included in this learning community was: 21st Century School Fund, the New Jersey Education Law Center, Maryland ACLU, Philadelphia Education Fund, New Visions for Public Schools (NYC), Neighborhood Capital Budget Group (Chicago), Innovation Partnership (Oregon), New Schools, Better Neighborhoods (LA), Save our Schools (New Orleans), Center for Cities + Schools (CA), Knowledgeworks Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and Mark Schneider, then at SUNY Stony Brook. 21CSF and its Building Educational Success Together (BEST) collaborative partners developed a joint research, constituency building and communications resources improving urban school facilities.
In 2012, the 21CSF supported an ad-hoc committee of state-level school facilities directors plan and launch the National Council on School Facilities (NCSF). The National Council is an organization of state facilities directors. The NCSF mission is to support states in their varied roles and responsibilities for the delivery of safe, healthy, and educationally appropriate school facilities that are sustainable and fiscally sound. The 21st Century School Fund has and is still providing research, communications, advocacy, and administrative support to the National Council since its inception.
In 2016 the 21st Century School Fund and the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Cities and Schools, in partnership with the National Council on School Facilities and the Center for Green Schools at USGBC, lead a national initiative to map equity into PK-12 public school facilities infrastructure. The Initiative used the expertise of more than sixty civic leaders, local and state officials, academics, industry professionals, labor advocates, and public finance experts from across the country. These experts worked in six groups organized around the basics of a well-managed facilities program. These are, Facilities Governance and Decision Making; Facilities Data and Information Management; Educational Facilities Planning; Facilities Operating and Capital Funding; Facilities Maintenance, Operations and Capital Management; and Facilities Accountability. Building on this initiative, the 21st Century School Fund and its partners created the [Re]Build America’s School Infrastructure Coalition (BASIC). This coalition advocates for a targeted, but meaningful federal role in public school facilities to address the gross disparity in the conditions in our nation’s public schools. BASIC is a non-partisan coalition of civic, public sector, labor, and industry associations who support federal funding to help under-served public school districts modernize and build K-12 public school facilities.
In 2021, the 21st Century School Fund in partnership with the National Council on School Facilities and the International WELL Building Institute, released the 2021 State of our Schools national report. This report provides an overview of research on the impact and importance of public school facilities to education, health, the environment, communities, and resiliency. It analyzes facilities spending and investment in the years from FY2009 following the great recession to FY2019.
In 2023 the the University of California, Berkeley’s Institute for Urban and Regional Development, in Consortium with the 21st Century School Fund, the National Council on Schools Facilities, and Child Trends was awarded a U.S. Department of Education grant to build the National Center on School Infrastructure. This new national center works to strengthen system-wide capacity, across the nation, within states, and in local communities to build, operate, and maintain modern elementary and secondary schools.
