A looming schools shortage?

Repurposed industrial land also presents a similar opportunity (once any hazardous contaminants are safely dealt with). Many industries have moved out from older style areas with narrow streets and smaller buildings to new industrial estates with b-double friendly road and transport networks and buildings designed to meet contemporary needs. The legacy sites can struggle to find new uses beyond low-grade storage. A wide mix of uses - education included - should be on the list of future possibilities. 

However, in most cases infill school sites are near impossible for the traditional large school + playing fields format. There is no reason however why any number of existing suburban centres – especially those near transport infrastructure, cannot be re-imagined. Vacated big box department and discount department stores offer ample space for modestly sized schools, potentially integrated into the shopping centre. They are typically well located, provide ample parking, are near public transport and have traditionally hosted intensive uses. The term ‘shopping centre’ has passed its use by date anyway; they are more like community centres now, for which uses like health and education make much sense. This is being done in the US, and there’s no reason it can’t happen here, other than planning flexibility, political will and industry intelligence (all three of which are often sadly lacking).

New mixed-use projects and entire renewal precincts could equally benefit from the activation that a school provides. Remember, a school of 50 to 100 students isn’t a candidate for a standalone building with its own sporting fields or gymnasium anyway – they instead could be a tenant within a new or adaptive re-use project, making use of nearby parks or commercial gyms should the curriculum require it. Once again, rigid planning controls that limit the type of mixes allowed in a mixed-use project typically don’t include education by default – something else that needs to change.

Funding options too are not necessarily the obstacle that you might think. Given the ravenous appetite of capital and the sheer weights of money looking for sustainable long-term investments, there is no reason why institutions won’t enter the education sector as a long-term capital partner on the non-government side, (potentially even the government side if they could). Where a non-government school once needed to save capital to fund land acquisitions and building costs via generations of savings and fund raising drives, we may soon see a number of these schools enter into new campus arrangements funded upfront by institutions on very long-term lease back arrangements. Think it can’t happen? Have a look at how quickly funds have begun entering the private health space, funding its (largely suburban) expansion? Private capital is already partnering with the tertiary education sector to fund new campuses – why not schools as well?

The bottom line is that with population growth comes the demands of that population – and schools are at the top of the list, or very near it. Our traditional approaches to locating schools will have to change if infill strategies to soak up growth are to work. This will require some forward thinking from urban planners and policy leaders. Any delays will inevitably result in a shortage of spaces, with overcrowded classrooms and limited choices on the government side, and even more exorbitant costs as demand exceeds supply on the private side. We made a mess of the housing market by failing to plan ahead. Can we avoid doing the same to schools?