A task force reviewing New Jersey’s school construction program recommends that the state invest an additional $2.5 billion in new funding for Abbott districts and $750 million for non-Abbott districts.

The report, released Sept. 14, is expected to serve as the basis for a new strategic and capital planning program for the state’s troubled School Construction Corp., created in 2002.

“This report is an important step in ensuring that our education system has the necessary infrastructure to provide our children with a first-rate education,” Gov. Jon S. Corzine said.

Need Continues “Both Abbott and non-Abbott districts need adequate and safe school facilities; the need has not diminished,” said Edwina M. Lee, NJSBA executive director. “The task force recommendation for additional state funding builds on earlier steps to establish accountability and responsibility in the state’s school construction agency.”

NJSBA is in the process of examining the latest task force recommendations, including eligibility criteria and funding levels for individual districts.

New Criteria State Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy said eliminating the SCC’s 2003 process of a “first-come, first-served free-for-all” is among the most significant reforms recommended in the report.

“Districts that had plans and land ready to go got their money first.  We are glad to see that the situation will change,” Davy said.

The state’s Education Facilities Construction Act of 2000 authorized $6 billion to fund all school building costs in the Abbott districts, and another $2.6 billion for up-front grants to fund a minimum of 40 percent of the eligible school construction in other districts.

Projects on Hold The additional $2.5 billion for Abbott constructions would last two to three years, according to the Interagency Working Group on School Construction’s report. The funds would cover 59 construction projects scheduled for state funding in July 2005. The extra money also would allow the state to continue work on some of the nearly 100 suspended school projects and to cover emergency repairs.

Other task force recommendations suggest that the SCC devise a preliminary list of priority school construction projects planned for the 2005 Long Range Facilities Plan, and other suspended projects. Schools with emergent health and safety issues, early childhood centers and those that are overcrowded are among those that should be on the list, the report states.

Bridge Funding NJSBA is a member of Building Our Children’s Future, a coalition of education and business organizations that is urging the administration and the Legislature to restore Education Facilities Construction Act funding.

The task force recommendation for new state funds is in line with NJSBA’s advocacy of “bridge funding.”  Such funds would ensure that on-hold school construction projects would be completed in poor communities and would restore grants to lessen the property tax burden on voter-approved projects elsewhere.