Opinion | Improve Michigan public schools by protecting clean-energy incentives

Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our children. They are our future, our hope and they deserve the best we can offer them. That starts by ensuring they have access to a great education with healthy and safe learning spaces.

However, many Michigan schools have outdated buildings and heating and cooling systems, keeping our students from breathing the cleanest air possible. It’s difficult for these students to focus on learning when they are suffering through frigid cold in the winter and stifling heat close to the summer months — all while breathing unhealthy air year-round.

Thankfully, federal tax credits for clean energy in the Inflation Reduction Act have created an opportunity for schools across the state to upgrade their facilities and install clean energy systems that make schools healthier and safer — while also creating good-paying jobs and reducing energy costs so more money can go into our classrooms. Thanks to the program’s direct pay incentive, school districts and other public entities can use tax credits to install solar panels and other clean energy measures.

However, some elected officials in Washington are threatening to cut these vital clean energy incentives and funding programs, which puts much-needed school upgrades on the chopping block. We need our members of Congress to protect these critical incentives and help make schools safer and healthier for students and educators.

Michigan is stepping up to modernize our public schools by funding energy efficiency and solar audits, as well as a statewide school facilities study. The study's results show that bringing our school buildings up to modern health, safety and wellness standards will cost nearly $23 billion over the next 10 years. 

Coupling this data with the energy efficiency and solar audits, which should be released this summer, lawmakers and school leaders will have the road map they need to determine the best infrastructure investments to save money and make our school buildings more efficient, safe and healthy. 

Congress must protect the federal clean energy incentives provided through the Inflation Reduction Act, as these incentives are a critical component of funding these important projects.

People are at the heart of these projects: the Michiganders who have footed the bill for unnecessarily high energy costs for too long, the students who learn in our schools and the staff who support them, and the workers who install solar panels and heat pumps and upgrade aging infrastructure.

Michiganders deserve energy-efficient public buildings that can save on heating and cooling costs, and students deserve — and need — safe and comfortable school buildings with clean air to breathe.  

For the sake of Michigan taxpayers, our elected leaders cannot continue to let energy bills spike, and for the sake of our students and educators, we cannot allow our schools to fall further into disrepair. 

Instead, Congress must safeguard critical clean energy incentives that will improve our public schools, support good-paying jobs and reduce energy expenses. 

That’s why we are urging our members of Congress to protect the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy incentives and give our children the safe, healthy schools they need to learn, grow and thrive.