TACIR Publication on School Capital Projects

TACIR’s latest publication, Capital Expenditures for Public Schools, is available on the Internet. The report finds that in the 5-year period centered on the year in which the smaller class-size mandate of the Education Improvement Act (EIA) of 1992 became a requirement (fiscal year 2001-02), Tennessee school systems spent

• $2,100,000,000 on capital projects; and
• $1,400,000 on debt service.

The TACIR report describes those expenditures and compares them to the growth in school enrollment, the increase in the number of schools, the condition of school buildings as reported to TACIR in its annual inventory of infrastructure needs, as well as the overall cost of needs reported in that inventory.

The report closes with a suggestion that the legislature consider expanding the authority of the Tennessee State School Bond Authority to extend its lending support to school systems. It also suggests that the state consider re-establishing technical and administrative assistance services for school capital outlay programs in the Department of Education. The full report is available here.