Innovative School Facility Partnerships: Downtown, Airport, and Retail Space

Childhood Education, Summer 2002 by Kieff, Judith

INNOVATIVE SCHOOL FACILITY PARTNERSHIPS: Downtown, Airport, and Retail Space. Matthew D. Taylor & Lisa Snell. Reason Public Policy Institute, 2000. 22 pp. As schools across the United States strive to combat overcrowding, a growing number of districts are forming partnerships with private commercial enterprises to create work-site school facilities that serve the children of employees. The idea of satellite, or work-site, schools first emerged in 1987 in Miami-Dade County, Florida. More than 45 of these innovative schools operate throughout the United States and are hosted by airports, downtown business districts, and large private employers. This report details models of several work-site schools, including one at Miami-Dade International Airport, two operated by downtown business districts in Tampa, Florida, and Des Moines, Iowa, and a fourth operated by the Mall of America in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

In all the aforementioned models, the host company pays the costs for school construction and maintenance, while the public school system hires teachers, provides textbooks, and creates curriculum. In addition to the financial savings, work-site schools benefit children through increased parental involvement and more personalized attention.

The report identifies several barriers that hinder implementation of this innovative school concept, including restrictive building codes that make renovation of commercial space prohibitively expensive and laws that prohibit host businesses from targeting enrollment to children of employees. Taylor and Snell note that while work-site schools will not solve all the problems of overcrowding in public schools, they can create new school spaces and offer an alternative for families.

Copies of this report may be purchased for $15 by calling 310-391-2245, or they may be accessed for free on RPPI's Web site at www.rppi.org/ ps276central.html. You may write to: Reason Public Policy Institute, 3415 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 400, Los Angeles, CA 90034-6064.