Dive Brief:

• Despite a significant budget deficit, Chicago Public Schools will finance nine new construction projects with a property tax levy that will pay for $800 million in bonds funding many of the announced projects, according to a WBEZ News report. 
• The state of Florida is also considering bonds to close a $36 million shortfall projected in the requested funding of school construction and maintenance projects in the state in the 2017-2018 fiscal year, the Palm Beach Post reports. Gov. Rick Scott is unlikely to allow additional borrowing. ​
• School construction (or lack thereof) in Florida and Chicago could have unintended consequences for vulnerable communities. School construction projects in some of Florida’s poorer, rural communities are unlikely if the funding gap is not filled, while critics of the Chicago funding say new annexes to existing institutions will exacerbate educational segregation in city schools.

Dive Insight:

Chicago and Florida’s reliance on borrowing to finance school capital projects is illustrative of the gradually worsening state of school infrastructure nationwide, a problem that is exacerbated by school districts’ unwillingness or inability to fund improvements and construction that would keep pace with the deficiencies. An ASCE report on school infrastructure spending found nearly 24% of public schools with permanent buildings were in “fair” or “poor” condition. School districts nationwide need to spend $58 billion annually just to maintain their facilities, with another $77 billion needed to fund upgrades to these facilities and $10 billion for new construction to accommodate projected increases in student enrollment.

Illinois’s current position is particularly fraught, as school districts have borrowed beyond their debt limit to finance capital projects, while Chicago Public Schools makes cuts to alternative programs for at-risk children. CPS teachers are also threatening a walkout for early May to protest budget cuts. CPS maintains the cuts are due to Gov. Bruce Rauner’s veto of legislation that would have brought $215 million in state aid to city schools. The decision “blew a hole in the CPS budget that is forcing painful choices,” a CPS spokeswoman said.

In Florida, Scott remains wary of authorizing the state to borrow funds that would close the school construction shortfall. Both situations could indicate how municipalities and states will fare if and when governors refuse to supply additional funding that districts maintain is needed, in Rauner’s case, or refuse to allow borrowing that would sufficiently close funding gaps, as in the case of Scott.