24 - Are Green Schools the Key to Closing the Educational Achievement Gap? Ft. Rachel Gutter

Are Green Schools the Key to Closing the Educational Achievement Gap?

Rachel Gutter,

Director of the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC)

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About This Episode:

One out of every six people in the U.S. spends each day in a K-12 public school, yet America’s school buildings have a problem that is hiding in plain sight. The 2016 “State of Our Schools” report from the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC) finds a $46 billion annual shortfall in the funding needed to keep our nation’s school buildings healthy, safe and conducive to learning.

 

It has been proven that the places where our children attend school have a significant impact on their health and educational performance. Students thrive in well-lit, well-ventilated, healthy school environments, but there are millions of students across the country who are learning in dilapidated, obsolete and unhealthy facilities that pose substantial obstacles to learning and overall wellbeing.

 

On this episode, Director of the Center for Green Schools and SVP of Knowledge at the U.S. Green Building Council, Rachel Gutter shares the results of this report, which highlights a state by state national comparison and findings. She also discusses information at the local and federal level concerning the current conditions of public school infrastructure. The state of schools in our country is vital to the development and growth of our younger generations.

Learn More Here about The Report:

http://www.usgbc.org/articles/infographic-2016-state-our-schools-americas-k12-facilities 

About Rachel Gutter:

Rachel is Senior Vice President of Knowledge at the U.S. Green Building Council and Director of the Center for Green Schools. Rachel’s dynamic leadership provides a powerful voice for the green schools movement, convening international corporations, globally recognized institutions, and government entities around a singular purpose: to put every student in a green school within this generation. Under her direction, the Center for Green schools has published more than 1,000 pages of technical guides and original research and deployed more than half a million volunteers who have contributed $46 million in donated time to transform schools across the world. In 2007, she launched LEED for Schools, a version of the U.S. Green Building Council’s popular green building certification program that facilitates the design, construction and operations of high-performance green schools.

Follow Rachel on Twitter: https://twitter.com/rachelgutter