Citizens Budget
Commission
STATEMENT ON THE SCHOOL FACILITY
HEALTH AND SAFETY BOND ACT OF 1997
The School Facility Health and Safety Bond Act, which authorizes the State to borrow $2.4 billion for school facilities and technology, is on the ballot this November. The Citizens Budget Commission recommends that New Yorkers reject this measure.
There are serious safety and capacity problems in school facilities across the State, but the School Facility Health and Safety Bond Act will not solve them. The Act's deficiencies are:
1. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS IS NOT SPECIFIED
The Act authorizes spending $2.4 billion for six broad purposes with no further specificity or implementing legislation. Voters cannot know which projects will be supported or the geographic distribution of the funds across the state. Voters do not know when the borrowing will occur. In short, voters are asked to write the Governor, the Assembly Speaker and the Senate Majority Leader a $2.4 billion check without knowing how, where, or when the money will be spent.
2. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS IS NOT TIED TO NEED
The Act does not establish criteria for distributing the borrowed funds; therefore, there is no assurance that their allocation will be related to need. Furthermore, New York State has not conducted a statewide assessment of public school capital needs, so the types of improvements required and their cost are unknown.
3. NEW MONEY FOR SCHOOLS IS NOT ASSURED
There is no assurance that the funds borrowed under the Act will increase the resources available to schools for capital investment. These funds may substitute for monies local governments would otherwise raise themselves.
4. NEW YORK CITY'S SCHOOLS WILL NOT IMPROVE
The problems of the state's largest school district, New York City, will not be solved by the Act. Although the City has a capital strategy, it is seriously flawed. Under the City's current policies, overcrowding will not be eliminated and adequate rehabilitation will not be accomplished with or without these borrowed funds.
Whatever the amount of funding provided to the New York City Board of Education as a result of the Act, it will be the proverbial drop in the bucket. For every school that is improved by the proceeds of the borrowing under the Act, another will fall into disrepair.
The only viable solution to New York City's problems is to use existing school buildings more intensively through year-round schooling and double-shifting. This would reduce the number of schools needed, thereby concentrating available capital funds on rehabilitating fewer existing schools. Then, the funds already in the City's capital plan could alleviate overcrowding, bring buildings to a state of good repair, and prepare them technologically for the next century.
5. LOCAL CAPITAL INVESTMENT DECISIONS WILL BE DISTORTED
The State's capital plan has never included borrowing funds for local school facilities. Historically, localities have had the autonomy to make capital investment decisions and pay for them using their own borrowed funds. Passage of the Act would change fundamentally the State's role in public education from one of equalizing local access to resources to one of directly influencing and financing local capital investment decisions. Districts might initiate projects only because these resources are available.