Why Green Schools Are Important For Students and Teachers

Today’s tip of the day is about why green schools are increasingly important for student education and teachers’ abilities to teach effectively.

Even if you're not totally up on your "deuce courts" and "set points," you’d have to admit that former tennis pro and notorious bad boy Andre Agassi seems an unlikely advocate for school facilities. But in the last several years, Agassi has spent millions of his own money in conjunction with the Canyon-Agassi Charter School Facility Fund to open charter schools in economically depressed neighborhoods all over the country, including recently in Detroit and Milwaukee.

In a recent interview with Time magazine, Agassi discussed why he thinks good school facilities are critical. "The single greatest impediment to the growth of best-in-class charter schools is not the software but the hardware — the actual facilities."

And Agassi’s organization recognizes that “good school facilities” increasingly means green. The CACSFF intends to build $500 million in “environmentally friendly educational facilities” over the next several years, according to its website.

Research continues to pour in about how green schools positively affect both students' abilities to learn, as well as teachers’ ability to teach. USGBC's Center for Green Schools puts it this way: “High-performance schools result in high-performing students.”

So it's certainly significant that green schools in general, but the notion of school facilities having an impact on student performance, have such a well-known advocate in Agassi. Turns out image isn't everything, after all.

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