Sponsors (15)
Introduced April 3, 2025 by John Garamendi · Last progress April 3, 2025
The bill directs targeted federal funds to repair, modernize, and build school facilities—especially for federally impacted and high‑need districts—improving health, safety, and access, but does so through competitive grants, local matching, and administrative discretion that may advantage better‑resourced districts, strain local budgets, and create implementation uncertainty.
Federally impacted and high-need LEAs (including tribal, military-connected, and low-wealth districts) will receive new federal grants to repair, modernize, or build school facilities, improving learning environments for students.
Students and staff in LEAs with urgent health/safety and environmental hazards will be prioritized for funds to remediate hazards (ventilation, lead, drinking water, hazardous substances) and upgrade energy efficiency and technology, improving health and learning conditions.
High-need districts face lower non‑Federal match rates (including full federal funding for LEAs with no bonding capacity and the ability to count in‑kind contributions), reducing local cash burdens and making projects more affordable for disadvantaged communities.
Local governments and LEAs are required to provide matching funds (up to 25% for wealthier districts) and abide by supplement-not-supplant rules, which can strain local budgets and leave cash‑strapped districts unable to access or complete projects.
Heavy reliance on competitive grants (75% reserved) and prioritization criteria advantage districts with grant-writing capacity, disadvantaging small, rural, and under-resourced LEAs that lack grant expertise.
The bill authorizes roughly $1 billion over four years and expands federal grant activity, increasing federal spending and potential budgetary trade-offs for taxpayers and other federal priorities.
Based on analysis of 9 sections of legislative text.
Creates a four-year federal grant program ( $250M/yr) to fund construction, renovation, and teacher housing for federally impacted LEAs with prioritization and matching rules.
Creates a four-year federal grant program that directs $250 million per year (for four years) to help school districts with large shares of federally connected students repair, renovate, or build school facilities and teacher housing. Grants are split 75% competitive / 25% formula, target districts with limited bonding/tax capacity and urgent health/safety or facility-condition needs, set matching rules tied to existing federal thresholds, and change how certain student counts are calculated for construction payments.