A mural at Dallas F. Nicholas, Sr. Elementary School

In this week’s Audacious Ideas blog post for the Open Society Institute, Bebe Verdery writes about the impact that school facility improvements have not just on children but also on their surrounding communities. Verdery, who is the Education Reform Director for the ACLU of Maryland, notes that physical improvements to Baltimore schools create jobs as well as opportunities to incorporate new environmentally-friendly building techniques. And most of all, children deserve school buildings with the physical infrastructure they need in order to learn and do their best.