Bipartisan Support for Fixing Our Schools

Mary Filardo of the 21st Century School Fund helped with this post.

On October 12, Senators Webb and Warner introduced a bill to rehabilitate the nation's historic schools. According to their press release, this proposal is also supported by Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, and U.S. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

My FAST! colleagues and I were very happy to see this bipartisan support for fixing up our public school buildings. Like they say, the first step towards fixing a problem is recognizing the problem and taking responsibility for it.

We worry, however, that their plan is too limited in scope. This limits the impact both in terms of jobs and school modernization.

Fix America's Schools Today (FAST!) -- introduced by Senator Sherrod Brown (S. 1597) and Congresswoman Rosa De Lauro (H.B. 2948) like the president's plan, would provide grants for repair and modernization directly to state education agencies and local school districts by formula, accounting for need. The resources would get out the door quickly, and repair projects would ramp up right away. With FAST thousands of schools can be repaired and modernized and nearly 250,000 jobs can be created.

The Senators' plan -- The Historic Schools Rehabilitation Tax Credit -- is a bit more complicated.

Their plan offers developers, states, and school districts a federal tax credit to enter into public/private partnerships to help pay for modernization of schools that are on the National Register of Historic places.

Private partners would need to purchase the historic public school and then lease it back to the school district. As part of the sale-lease-back agreement they would modernize the historic schools using the incentive of the federal tax credit to reduce the overall cost.

We applaud the Senators for recognizing the intersection of need and opportunity here -- the need to fix our schools and the opportunity to get folks back to work making the repairs.

However, unlike FAST!, the tax credit program is too small and too slow. There are few public schools already on the National Register of Historic places -- maybe in the hundreds (we're working on an accurate count). The policies, approvals, and agreements needed for school districts to enter into developer partnerships adds a level of complexity that will limit the impact on both school repairs and jobs. And poorer school districts just won't be able to make use of a tax credit -- they need a grant to make these repairs.

School repair and modernization marries two problems -- the need to fix our public schools and sky-high unemployment among the folks who do the work -- into one solution. And we're talking here about fixing up one of the most important institutions in our communities: the public schools. So while we're especially happy to see bipartisan support for this idea, we want to be sure to implement a plan that going to make a real dent in the problem.

We urge lawmakers to consider the limitations noted above, and support FAST! Barring that, there may be ways to help this new variation address some of the limitations we raise above. For example, Congress could temporarily designate all public schools older than, say, 50 years (that's the average age of our schools) as historic places for this bill.

Whatever it takes, let's make this work...and FAST!

 

Comments

[rtolmach]

08:59 AM on 10/14/2011

It's not just that the buildings are in disrepair; they are also barren: not enough books, computers, art supplies, musical instruments, science equipment and sports gear that kids need to perform at their best. Here’s a new way for everyone in your school community to turn unused household items into classroom resources for the kids you care about: http://ClassWish-WebThriftStore.org

[umbrarchist]

01:53 PM on 10/14/2011

With computers what do they need with tree books?

What about Freebee e-books?

A Short History of the World by H. G. Wells
http://www.bartleby.com/86/

All Day September by Roger Kuykendall
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2295/all-day-september

Eight Keys to Eden by Mark Clifton
http://www.mysterious-strange-weird.com/index-sensational-mysteries.html
http://www.onread.com/book/Eight-Keys-to-Eden-6514/

The Fourth R by George O. Smith
http://www.onread.com/book/The-Fourth-R-17950/

There Will Be School Tomorrow, by V. E. Thiessen
www.feedbooks.com/userbook/11643.pdf

THE YEAR WHEN STARDUST FELL by Raymond F. Jones
http://www.amazon.com/Year-When-Stardust-Fell/dp/1935774409
http://www.readcentral.com/book/Raymond-F-Jones/Read-The-Year-When-Stardust-Fell-Online

Black Man's Burden by Mack Reynolds
http://sfgospel.typepad.com/sf_gospel/2008/08/mack-reynolds-on-africa-islam-utopia-and-progress.html
http://www.feedbooks.com/book/4826/black-man-s-burden

[booksnmoreforyou]

05:22 AM on 10/14/2011

As a seasoned professional educator and progressive, I regret to conclude that the problems in America's public education are so utterly systemic and gargantuan, reform is completely, completely, completely hopeless.

The way forward is to liberate educators and groups of educators into rational experimentation with completely redesigned systems, and pray some models emerge than can replace, not reform, what we have now.

Don't otherwise be fooled.

[luapmi2]

06:26 AM on 10/16/2011

We are toast.

[vietveter]

02:25 AM on 10/14/2011

BIPARTISAN: is that where one side does nothing

while the other side debates its self - and gives

away all the good points it started with?

Throw away MR. JELLO.


WARREN for president - 2012

[RussAbbott]

12:52 AM on 10/14/2011

How to take a good idea and kill it with apparent agreement. Just a few modifications around the edges. Right?

[oilfield]

11:57 PM on 10/13/2011

how about we let landlord modernize their rent houses with a 100% deduction the first year.....this will in turn raise property taxes and create even more jobs all the while saving tenants money on their utility bills.

[vietveter]

02:28 AM on 10/14/2011

Some lawyer for a fat cat would

say he rents his yacht.


GOOD IDEA THOUGH!

[oilfield]

01:54 PM on 10/14/2011

still gets private money spent to do it....

[shrugged]

11:40 PM on 10/13/2011

One key is to look at the history of the formation of "public" schools in the USA. There were numerous education options prior to starting the public schools. But, the STATE wanted control of the indoctrination of the workers and cannon fodder.

[shrugged]

11:36 PM on 10/13/2011

Get Washington out and keep schools local. The more Washington is involved the worse schools get.

[shankapotomus]

09:19 PM on 10/13/2011

We could but O spent all of our money.

[booksnmoreforyou]

05:39 AM on 10/14/2011

I bet you wish you had the facts on your side.

Bush: 1.4 trillion dollar deficit when he left office.

Obama: 7.5 billion dollar deficit by 2013.

The true pattern of GOPers in my entire lifetime has exhibited "Deficit Attention Disorder." They obsess over deficits when they are out of power, and ignore it when in power.

[shankapotomus]

07:55 AM on 10/14/2011

I'am talking about debt.

[shankapotomus]

07:57 AM on 10/14/2011

Bush or no other president has ever had a trillion dollor deficit, Obama's over a trillion every years, learn somthing and stop listening to the lefts lies.

[Mississippi Red]

07:39 PM on 10/13/2011

I wonder how many future contributors to reelection campaigns stand to rip-off- I mean profit handsomely- from the school systems?

[LoneTree]

07:05 PM on 10/13/2011

Non-sequitur prelude: There are public schools that are in disrepair, there are very few public schools that are in anywhere near the desperate school plant shape of most non-elite private schools. In our town, the public schools cast a shadow over the meager private school grounds. Yet, as performance metrics show, private schools regularly outperform public schools. Although America spends more on education per pupil than almost any other country, our results are decidedly mediocre. Perhaps money isn't the problem.

The reason for the nonsensical introduction was to lay the groundwork for the fundamental problem with Mr. Bernstein's proposal. Borrowing and spending to fix the economy simply will not work, and John Maynard Keynes said as much himself.

A "market" is any setting in which humans exchange items of value. There's a "jobs market", "housing market", "stock market", etc. These markets sometime go nuts. To which Mr. Keynes said, "The market can remain irrational longer than you and I can remain solvent".

The MARKET can remain IRRATIONAL longer than you and I can remain SOLVENT.

To anyone who claims that deficit stimulus spending would work, if ONLY we spent more, for longer, please remind yourselves of these prescient words from Keynes himself.

If fixing schools is worth doing, then we ought to do what we can afford in the most cost-effective way. Wrapping what may be a worthy task in the flag of economic stimulus works against both Keynes' dire warning and effective construction planning.

[yintwin]

07:02 PM on 10/13/2011

To be honest, I misread and was hoping this was about fixing the school system. With the current global financial situation, personally I would say that sprucing up school buildings is a minor priority. More importantly, in light of the global changes we are in the midst of, wouldn't it be more productive to work out what it is we are currently trying to teach our children, and re-evaluate that? Rather that memorizing texts to keep kids distracted from reaching their true potential, and rather than encouraging competition, the time has come to to encourage working together toward strategies for a whole and functioning society. This is going to be challenging in itself on so many levels, because the mindset will need to change from 'self profit' or 'self' to a view toward a global functioning society that will need to take into account everyone, self included. To learn this, it will not matter in what pretty building they sit. Our kids are going to have to learn a new way of budgeting and taking into account the mass population if there are going to be future generations.

[Jerry Lammers]

07:01 PM on 10/13/2011

There is absolutely no reason for the Federal Government to intervene if state and local governments are unwilling to do this themselves. The city near me recently (a few years back) got taxpayer approval to shutter some old schools and build new ones. When they were done, enrollment had fallen dramatically. It was indeed a 'Bridge to Nowhere'. The Federal Government needs to completely get out of the Education business so Quality can IMPROVE and costs can decline.

[Bill Duckworth]

06:53 PM on 10/13/2011

Let the rich buy the education, don't they reap the reward of doing nothing but taking 90% of the fruit of labor?

Why should I pay with no children. I left school in 1964. Probably paid for my share in 1970.

[Bill Duckworth]

06:43 PM on 10/13/2011

Conservation seem to disappeared form the Energy problems

But it is about time to start convervation on Education. All the money in the world does not seem to do anything, but throw more money after more money.

I pay $14.00 per 1000 on my house and I am in the middle of NO WHERE. They already took the farm status away and charge me for flood insturance the Fema says should be 0

Keep it up. The rich need everything. And womens lib, black caucus, alternative sexual relations have not got enough, already. So ring for more donations I can say forget you over and over.

Just in case I find a space of JOY in this madness. Keep reminding me what a piece of s I am

[blindjester]

06:09 PM on 10/13/2011

"Private partners would need to purchase the historic public school and then lease it back to the school district. As part of the sale-lease-back agreement they would modernize the historic schools using the incentive of the federal tax credit to reduce the overall cost."
**************************************************

So school districts would have to pay rent forever on schools they used to own?

How does that work?

[LoneTree]

07:10 PM on 10/13/2011

The rent/own decision is based on a lot of considerations. Many businesses, even those who could write a check out of 'petty cash' to buy the buildings they occupy, choose to rent. Adding the fact that the school districts would be receiving a cash payout for the building adds another element to the calculations. If the newly privately-owned school buildings should happen to then go on the property tax rolls (I don't know how this law would treat that), so much the better.