On December 6, 2021, Erika Kitzmiller, term assistant professor of education, published an article in Educational Researcher, titled “Addressing Our Nation’s Toxic School Infrastructure in the Wake of COVID-19.” This research suggests that historical underinvestment in school facility capital has led to unhealthy building across the nation, a problem we must address both during, and after, the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Kitzmiller claims that the federal government needs to provide funding and research to ensure healthy school environments for educators, youth, and families. Her findings conclude that the conversation around reopening schools during the pandemic underscores the importance of recognizing the diversity in school building quality across the United States, identifying which schools pose the greatest health risks, and allocating funding in order to ensure that schools are — and continue to be — safe.
This research was published ahead of Professor Kitzmiller’s forthcoming book The Roots of Educational Inequality: Philadelphia's Germantown High School, 1907-2014.