Getting More Out of School Construction Dollars

As schools across America burst at the seams with the added enrollment of the so-called baby-boom echo, state and municipal taxpayers are being saddled with growing costs for building new facilities. In some cities, enrollment growth is so rapid that officials can't build schools fast enough.

But in fast-growing Miami, Fla., public school administrators have cut both time and costs through a construction method known as "design/build." Common in such industries as transportation and defense, design/build is less widely used in education. But that is starting to change, as states begin easing regulations that have long limited school officials' options.

Take Miami, for example. Until 1986, Florida law required school districts to hire separate contractors for the design and for the construction of public schools. An architect would draw up plans, then hand them off to a builder. The builder would then construct the school under the supervision of school administrators or an outside management firm. During construction, the builder inevitably would discover the need to vary from the plans, prompting costly change...