For MASSPTA

From the Healthy Schools Campaign
www.healthyschoolscampaign.org

As children step back into classrooms this year, how will they be affected by environmental exposures in school buildings?

Many schools have conditions or practices that can affect indoor air quality in a way that hurts children's health and ability to learn. According to The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO), "While laws compel children to attend school, some school buildings may be unsafe or even harmful to children's health."

Good solutions exist for many common problems with school environmental health, and even small changes can make a dramatic difference for the children, teachers and staff who spend their days in school buildings:

www.healthyhighperformingschool s.org

Safer Pest Control Project or Beyond Pesticides

Indoor Air Quality Tools for Schools Action Kit

Find out what's happening around the state and in your community concerning suicide prevention. Network with advocates and citizens from all walks of life who are working to save lives. Join the Coalition Today!

Connecting People, Ideas & Resources... Simply go to our website to join: http:www.MassPreventsSuicide .org

Health Politics with Dr. Mike Magee.

Targeting kids and women with flavored cigarettes

VIEW PROGRAM

Transcript

• Authorizes $1.6 billion in fiscal year 2008 and such sums as necessary in following years for grants for school renovation. States would receive funds in relation to their Title I allocation for that fiscal year with no state educational agency receiving less than 0.5 percent of the amount allocated.
• Provides funding for states for planning and research purposes to better implement school renovation initiatives.
• Requires the Government Accountability Office to report on school facility spending and provide the first estimate since 1995 for the costs needed to bring all schools to good overall condition.

In March of this year, PTA joined members of the Rebuilding America's Schools coalition in supporting the America's Better Classroom Act of 2007. The legislation would subsidize $25.2 billion in zero-interest school modernization bonds. Identical legislation was introduced in the Senate in March by Senator John D. Rockefeller of West Virginia.