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Introduced February 4, 2026 by Robert C. Scott · Last progress February 4, 2026
Provides large, multi-year federal support and new tax-credit bond authority to upgrade, repair, and modernize public K–12 school buildings, with a focus on high-need, high-poverty, and capital-constrained school districts. Creates a competitive, need-based grant program for school facility projects (FY2027–2031) with state allocations, matching and maintenance requirements, required plans and data collection, domestic content and labor standards, new environmental/energy standards, and reporting and oversight by federal agencies. Also restores and expands qualified tax credit bonds for school infrastructure and zone academy bonds, sets Davis-Bacon prevailing-wage rules for financed projects, establishes a new Department of Education office and periodic national studies on school conditions, increases Impact Aid Construction authorizations for five years, and funds a program to help states repair or replace school foundations damaged by pyrrhotite.
The bill directs large, targeted federal investments and stronger coordination to modernize and make schools safer and greener—especially in high-need districts—while increasing federal costs and imposing significant reporting, matching, and compliance burdens that may strain smaller districts and raise project costs.
Students, teachers, and local school districts will receive substantially increased federal funding and financing support for construction, major repairs, and remediation (including a new $20B/yr authorization, QZAB allocations, Impact Aid, and reimbursement programs), expanding the pool of money available for school facilities.
Students, staff, and school communities will benefit from direct health-and-safety improvements—removal/mitigation of lead, PFAS, asbestos, improved indoor air quality, and repair of hazardous foundations—reducing toxic exposures and structural risks.
School districts and taxpayers will gain support for energy efficiency, resilience, and net-zero/renewable upgrades (clear net-zero definition, decarbonization standards, DOE/EPA clearinghouse), which can lower operating costs and improve building sustainability over time.
Taxpayers nationwide will face sizable new federal spending commitments and subsidy exposure (e.g., $20 billion/year authorization plus expanded tax-credit bond subsidies and other authorizations), increasing the fiscal cost of school infrastructure support.
State and local education agencies (and their staff) will face substantial new administrative, reporting, and compliance burdens—facility inventories, annual Treasury and program reports, short application deadlines, and technical-certification requirements—that will require time and capacity to meet.
Smaller, poorer, or resource-constrained districts and some tribal/Bureau-funded schools risk being disadvantaged because matching requirements, fiscal-effort thresholds, and eligibility definitions may limit their ability to access funds or require reallocations from other services.