Center for Cities and Schools

In California’s K-12 Educational Infrastructure Investments: Leveraging the State’s Role for Quality School Facilities in Sustainable Communities, the University of California, Berkeley’s Center for Cities & Schools provides an analysis of the state’s K-12 infrastructure policies, regulations, and funding patterns. Findings reveal the need to greatly refine school facilities planning and funding policies and practices to promote sound, efficient, and goal-oriented decision making at state and local levels. The recommendations reenvision the state’s role in K-12 infrastructure as one of appropriately supporting educational outcomes and contributing to more sustainable communities through a framework of public infrastructure best practices for sound planning, effective management, adequate and equitable funding, and appropriate oversight. The recommendations build on those put forth in recent California Department of Education (CDE) reports, including Schools of the Future (2011), Blueprint for Great Schools (2011), and Re-Visioning School Facilities for the 21st Century (2009), and lay out a vision, policy framework, and implementation plan to equitably and efficiently improve learning environments for California’s 6 million students.