School Construction Delay Breaks Promise

School Construction Delay Breaks Promise

A proposal to further delay construction projects in poor communities would break a promise to schoolchildren, according to NJSBA’s executive director.

The plan, which would delay some of 59 high-priority school construction projects, will come before the New Jersey Schools Construction Corporation (SCC) later this month. The SCC is a state agency that oversees school construction in New Jersey’s poorest communities.

“Continuing to delay construction breaks a promise made to schoolchildren by the courts and the Legislature,” said Edwina M. Lee, NJSBA executive director. “It comes at a bad time: the need for safe schools and classroom space is growing, and delays will only add to inflation of construction costs.”

Under the state Supreme Court’s Abbott v. Burke decision, the state must fully fund school construction and renovation in 31 poor school districts. The proposed delay, reported last week, would add to the current list of 315 backlogged projects.

Since the creation of a $6 billion state fund in 2000 to finance construction in the Abbott districts, the SCC reports that it has completed 30 new schools and 20 additions, as well as repairs to numerous buildings.

The construction fund’s depletion—largely attributed to management decisions at the SCC—is the reason behind the current proposal to delay the projects, according to news reports. The SCC’s procedures have undergone extensive review over the past two years, and new accountability measures have been implemented.

Priority for All Districts “The exhaustion of the school construction fund resulted from actions at the state level,” said Lee. “Yet, it is the children in our local school districts who are paying the price by being denied safe and adequate classrooms.

“NJSBA continues to urge Governor Corzine and the state Legislature to make school construction funding a priority for both Abbott and non-Abbott districts.”

June Deadline In related news, the Education Law Center of Newark last week announced that plaintiffs in the Abbott case are requesting the Supreme Court to set a June 30 deadline for legislative approval of new construction funds.

The action “follows the Legislature’s failure to act on a request by the [SCC] for $3.25 billion in new funding to restart numerous, already approved building projects,” said ELC officials in a prepared statement.

In its statement, the law center also cited the Legislature’s “failure to take any action in response to the Court’s December 2005 order recognizing ‘significant deficiencies’ in Abbott facilities that are ‘likely to worsen at a severe cost to the state’s most disadvantaged children’.”