Decaying rats, mold infestation, collapsed ceilings: you name it, Jennifer Little has lived through it. Not in a rundown house or apartment building, but in her school.
"It's unbelievable what I've lived through, and what the kids lived through," says the former teacher, who logged more than 35 years teaching students from elementary school to high school before leaving the profession in 2010.
Little's challenges with classroom conditions are not isolated incidents. School districts across the country struggle find the resources — both monetary and manual — to keep up with maintenance requests.