Dive Brief:

• Tim Hogan of the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest claims in a new suit that the state Supreme Court's 1994 ruling that exclusive taxpayer funding for school construction is unconstitutional is being ignored.
• The state was supposed to make up the difference in funding, yet the Arizona legislature hasn't come up with enough funding in years, Hogan says. 
• Hogan is working with local school districts affected by the lack of funding and needing money for new schools.

Dive Insight:

Local school officials need to remember that old and decaying school buildings have physical and psychological consequences, and can also have longterm negative effects on learning. School conditions in some states liek Michigan's Detroit Public Schools have resulted in a lawsuit being filed by the Detroit Federation of Teachers and the American Federation of Teachers, blaming the district and former state-appointed emergency manager Darnell Earley for unsafe learning conditions. 

The average school building is more than 40 years old in the United States, and a recent report co-authored by the Center for Green Schools at the U.S. Green Building Council found that the U.S. would need to spend an additional $46 billion annually on school building construction and maintenance in order to ensure safe and healthy facilities for students. Building upkeep is imperative, as studies compiled by the U.S. Department of Education have shown that a child's ability to learn can be negatively affected by things like wobbly and broken desks or black mold in classroom ceilings.