Our schools could benefit from stimulus package

When the school district asked voters to approve a $63 million bond issue a year ago, on the wish list were: building a new wing onto the high school, reconfiguring spaces at Mount Erie Elementary School, separating the drop-off and pick-up areas from the bus lane, re-roofing the high school, adding bleachers to Rice Field and War Memorial Field and adding synthetic turf to War Memorial Field.  But, the bond issue failed, getting just 49.3 percent of the vote.

Those items are still on the school district’s wish list, but there could be some federal money coming from the stimulus bill being drafted in Congress that would help get some of those projects started.

The bill would, for the first time, involve the federal government in a significant fashion in the building and renovation of schools, which has been the responsibility of states and districts. It includes $20 billion for school renovation and modernization, with $14 billion for elementary and secondary schools and $6 billion for higher education. It also includes tax provisions under which the federal government would pay the interest on construction bonds issued by school districts.

The Anacortes school district has submitted a list of 27 items, with an estimated cost of over $4.6 million to five organizations for funding for school repairs and renovations. Among the most urgent projects are roof repair of the high schools Career & Technology Wing, with a $99,450 price tag. Other renovations in that wing total over $1 million.

That bond vote a year ago actually put the school district in a good position for stimulus money. One of the goals of the stimulus bill is that projects be ready to go by July.

The U.S. Department of Education’s discretionary budget for the 2008 fiscal year was about $60 billion. The stimulus bill would raise that to about $135 billion this year, and to about $146 billion in 2010. Other federal agencies would administer about $20 billion in additional education-related spending.

The stimulus bill would increase 2009 fiscal year spending on Title I, a program of specialized classroom efforts to help educate poor children, to $20 billion from about $14.5 billion, and raise spending on education for disabled children to $17 billion from $11 billion.