Book dossier

School facilities

by United States. General Accounting Office

This report examines how states and local school districts have been dealing with the issues facing their public school facilities, including: (1) the trends since 1990 in elementary and secondary school construction expenditures and how these expenditures were divided between land, buildings, and equipment; (2) trends since 1990 in the amount of expenditures for elementary and secondary school construction by type of school and type of construction; and (3) the amounts and mix of state and local funding for elementary and secondary school construction. Data show a 39 percent increase in elementary and secondary school construction annual expenditures. Most of the increase was for new buildings; expenditures for equipment such as heating and air conditioning systems only slightly increased during the eight-year period. It also reveals most of the construction expenditures was for construction of primary schools and high schools, and most of the contract spending was for new facilities and additions to existing facilities, with less being spent on renovations. Fifteen states provided little or no funding in 1998-99. Appendices provide the scope and methodology of the research, statistical tables, and comments from the Department of Education. (Gr).