Giving Compass' Take:

• In impoverished rural areas, sufficient funding for school facilities is much more difficult to obtain compared to districts with a strong tax base. 

• The author mentions that one school district is thinking of starting a community foundation that would provide school capital expenses. What are the potential challenges with this idea? 

• Read about why some school district secessions are accelerating. 

In 2014, a cash-strapped school district in rural northeast Kansas turned to its residents with a plea: Pay a little more in taxes annually so we can renovate classrooms, update the wiring and give students better spaces to learn.

Voters rejected the measure by a margin of 54 to 46 percent. While disappointing, the results were hardly surprising to the district’s leaders. Unified School District 377 has tried — and failed — to pass measures for capital construction five times in 18 years. The last successful school bond campaign was in 1974.

Since then, maintenance problems have compounded. One snowy morning this January, the 26-year-old boiler in the district’s central office building, which also houses the preschool and kindergarten classes, sputtered to a stop.

“We’ll have to find the money somewhere,” said Gaddis in his office later that month, sporting a small blue and gold “Kansans Can” pin on the lapel of his blazer. “Any teacher will tell you kids can’t learn if they’re not comfortable.”

Although most states help pay for some construction costs, almost half, including Kansas, pay less than 10 percent. That means that, for the most part, districts in those states are at the mercy of voters to finance capital projects, such as building new schools and making major renovations to existing ones. Affluent communities with a strong tax base are able to borrow money and pass bond measures, while low-wealth districts — particularly in rural areas — struggle to do so.

The funding structure “is inherently and persistently inequitable,” the 21st Century School Fund report authors concluded. The research and advocacy organization EdBuild called states’ education funding systems outdated, arbitrary, and segregating.

Read the full article about funding school facilities by Emily Richmond at The Hechinger Report.