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Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Report: Half Trillion Need To Update Schools

WASHINGTON (AP) -- America's schools are in such disrepair that it would cost more than $270 billion just to get elementary and secondary buildings back to their original conditions and twice that to get them up to date, a report released Tuesday estimated. In a foreword to the report, former President Bill Clinton said "we are still struggling to provide equal opportunity" to children and urged the first federal study of school buildings in almost two decades.

Clinton and the Center for Green Schools urged a Government Accountability Office assessment on what it would take to get school buildings up to date to help students learn, keep teachers healthy and put workers back on the jobs. The last such report, issued in 1995 during the Clinton administration, estimated it would take $112 billion to bring the schools into good repair and did not include the need for new buildings to accommodate the growing number of students.

The Center for Green Schools' researchers reviewed spending and estimates schools spent $211 billion on upkeep between 1995 and 2008. During that same time, schools should have spent some $482 billion, the group calculated based on a formula included in the most recent GAO study.

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5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Didn't they raise our taxes for this about 6 years ago?
What happened to that money?

ginn said...

It isn't only schools, it's the whole damn infrastructure.
Bridges, power grid, highways, railroads(which btw we are going to have to revitalize for any future economic growth), subway systems, national parks.., the list goes on and on.
All due to government graft and greed!

Anonymous said...

It seems that the schools are a bottomless pit where tax money goes with no result never to be seen again.

Anonymous said...

736, that money was wasted on new school buildings with 90 corners and 47 roof lines made of rare brick and stonework OE chiefs. They are sooooo pretty, aren't they?

Anonymous said...

My question is: As a family, we have a BUDGET. Why don't the school districts have to budget for repairs into their budgets? If the money is not used in one school year it is placed in a savings account where it can earn interest and grow until a repair is needed.
I'm not talking about putting monies in a budget on paper and there not being money to back it. They should not run like the government!