How the New Reality Plays for School Budgets

Three stories about schools struggling with their past--as in the past where they built schools that are not sustainable and that depend greatly on abundant cheap energy. The typical school today is far too large and far too distant from its students, necessitating an expensive and wasteful cycle of nasty diesel powered bus travel and parents hauling kids back and forth.

Salem-Keizer Schools are planning an expensive bond this fall, supposedly to make up for failures to maintain the facilities that the district already owns. But nothing I've heard suggests that the school board recognizes that, as far as energy is concerned, this isn't a temporary blip -- this is the new reality, and that the suburban mega-school model isn't going to cut it any more.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/07/8949_expensive-gas-four-day-week.html

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jiEc6AcqnEaNlptkata5Ah2nTueAD91QEP7G0

http://www.usatoday.com/news/education/2008-07-09-schoolbuses_N.htm