Students across France have organized protests to draw attention to the poor condition of school buildings, pointing out problems such as heating failures, broken thermal kettles, water leaks, and unclean restrooms. Although regions have allocated 18% of their budgets to secondary education in 2025, including funds for maintenance and new construction, the issue remains a source of debate. School building management is the responsibility of regional authorities, not the national education budget, which is set to rise by 1.1 billion euros by 2027. Tensions have already been high between the national government and regional authorities, and the student protests have added to the strain. Renaud Muselier, former president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur regional council, criticized the government, saying that regions are already making sacrifices and cannot keep filling in the gaps without support. The government has tried to resolve the crisis by engaging with regional leaders, but an organization representing the regions expressed frustration over not being formally invited to meetings with the Prime Minister. The 2026 finance law includes a request for 5.4 billion euros from local authorities, with over a billion euros expected to come from the regions. This could affect the funds available for secondary schools, especially if the costs of repairing damage from student protests are not covered by insurance. President Fabrice Pannekoucke of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes estimated the damage in his region at 25 to 30 million euros, while Valérie Pécresse of Île-de-France estimated 7 million euros, noting that this figure may change. Xavier Bertrand of Hauts-de-France estimated the damage at 1 million euros. In 2025, regions allocated 6.8 billion euros to secondary education, with 4.3 billion euros for operational expenses and 2.5 billion euros for investments, which amounts to about 18% of their total budgets. Regional funding for secondary schools mainly comes from local taxes and annual state allocations. Each region sets a per-school funding level based on factors like the number of students, the size of the buildings, and the educational programs offered. In Île-de-France, the region covers half of the operational costs directly to achieve cost savings. Renaud Muselier noted that secondary schools make up a third of the Region Sud's 3 billion euro budget, with annual renovation costs ranging from 200 to 250 million euros. Valérie Pécresse stated that Île-de-France spends 1 billion euros annually on renovating its 468 public secondary schools, with a total investment of 6.6 billion euros between 2015 and 2026. The government has introduced support mechanisms, such as the Green Fund, which will reach 1 billion euros in 2027, and the VAT compensation fund, which allows local authorities to reclaim part of the VAT paid on their investments. However, Muselier criticized these mechanisms as too complicated and said they often reduce the resources available to local authorities.