Millions of Dollars Have Been Available to Wisconsin School Districts to Improve Air Quality Since the Start of the Pandemic

Friday, September 22nd, 2023 -- 1:00 PM

(By Corrinne Hess, Wisconsin Public Radio) Since the pandemic, millions of dollars have been available to Wisconsin school districts to improve air quality in aging buildings.

But, according to Corrinne Hess with Wisconsin Public Radio, only about 20 percent of those federal dollars have been spent on replacing HVAC systems in schools.

If school districts want to avoid remote learning as seasonal viruses spread, the number one thing they can do is improve the school building’s ventilation, said Apoorva Mandavilli, New York Times science and global health reporter and the 2019 University of Wisconsin-Madison science writer in residence during a recent interview on The Morning Show.

"Wisconsin got more than $1.5 billion and the state spent about 20 percent of those funds," Mandavilli said. "There is definitely plenty of money and all that is really required is will power."

That money came from the American Rescue Plan, which provided $122 billion for the Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund to help schools prevent the spread of, prepare for, and respond to COVID-19, including by improving indoor air quality, so school leaders across the country can improve ventilation in their buildings.

Wisconsin’s public schools received a total of nearly $2.4 billion in three rounds of ESSER funds and the Department of Public Instruction has documentation of how the money has been spent. HVAC improvements are not specifically broken down.

They are included in general construction under "health and safety." Some school districts have used federal funds to improve HVAC. In November 2021, the Granton Area School District, near Marshfield, planned to use ESSER funds to revamp the school’s HVAC system.

The project was estimated to cost about $1.6 million.

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