Yes on Question 4

Do you favor a $15,000,000 bond issue to capitalize the State’s School Revolving Renovation Fund for repairs and improvements in public school facilities to address health, safety and compliance deficiencies, general renovation needs and learning space upgrades?

The bond for the school-renovation fund shows plenty of support in pre-election polls for good reason. Anyone who has heard about what school officials pay to keep buildings in good shape, roofs from leaking and air quality acceptable know that these expensive maintenance issues cost more than most local districts have to give. The $15 million in this bond would be added to more than $71 million already appropriated, moving Maine close to its goal of $100 million in state funding for renovation.

The fund not only loans money to school districts, it forgives between 30 and 70 percent of the debt, depending on the district’s wealth. As one school official observed recently, the funding means districts can afford to look at whether they have problems and do something about them. If they cannot afford to, undetected problems get worse, repairs get more extensive and expensive, buildings don’t last as long and taxpayers are shelling out for a new school.

The state Department of Education estimates that Maine has $200 million in needed school renovations and is depending on a dollar-for-dollar match with local districts to meet the demand. Already, 150 schools have received state support for renovations, keeping approximately 45,000 students in schools where the air now meets health standards and the rain no longer drips

into the classrooms.

With support from voters, Maine could catch up with a lot of needed renovations in the next couple of years. But even with that progress, there will always be more to do as buildings grow older and the cost of building new rises. School renovation needs to be a permanent part of the state’s investment in schools and, given the life of the renovations and the avoided costs of new schools, is an appropriate subject for this and future bond questions.

Voters should support Question 4 this year and be prepared for similar questions in the coming years.