Start cutting here, Gov. Corbett
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With a pledge not to raise taxes, and facing an enormous budget deficit, Gov.-elect Tom Corbett needs billions of dollars in spending cuts. Let me offer some low-hanging fruit: Eliminate the school construction subsidy program called PlanCon.
Each year, Pennsylvania school districts spend more than a billion dollars on school construction, with hundreds of millions reimbursed by the state. The subsidy depends on the wealth of the district, but some districts receive 25 percent or more of construction costs.
In theory, PlanCon encourages school districts to build and maintain top-quality facilities. In practice, PlanCon rewards districts for abandoning or demolishing perfectly good buildings and replacing them with lavish facilities that do little to improve learning but take decades to pay off.
Moreover, many of these projects exacerbate a decades-long trend of closing neighborhood schools and replacing them with large consolidated schools to which all students must be bused. Statewide, school busing now costs $1.2 billion annually -- half of it subsidized by the state -- and riding rather than walking contributes to childhood obesity. Meanwhile, the loss of nearby schools accelerates the decline of older neighborhoods.
Even when existing schools are retained, PlanCon adds unnecessary millions to construction costs by requiring that schools be completely renovated -- a process known as "shut-it-and-gut-it." The state provides no subsidies for on-going maintenance, such as replacing a roof, installing new wiring, or replacing plumbing and heating systems.
Instead, PlanCon provides an incentive for school districts to let buildings deteriorate so badly that reconstruction or replacement -- subsidized by the state -- seems necessary. Architects are paid a percentage of total construction costs, so they have a financial incentive to make projects as extensive as possible rather than promote cost-effective solutions.
First Published November 21, 2010 12:00 am
