Momentum Building For Construction Funding

By Joetta L. Sack

The scenes from the school are shocking, but are familiar to many educators across the country: broken windows, mildewed ceiling tiles with gaping holes, and rotting wooden bookshelves.

They appear in a video produced by the Organizations Concerned About Rural Education, a Washington-based coalition of groups—just one of many reports, pictures, and firsthand stories that have been circulated on Capitol Hill to remind lawmakers of the school construction problems that many districts face. For the past three years, educators and advocacy groups have lobbied for a broad-based federal program to help districts build new schools and renovate dilapidated buildings.

Those efforts could pay off this year, as a growing number of Republicans are signing on to what so far has been a primarily Democratic priority. Some are supporting a proposal similar to the five-year, $24.8 billion construction plan offered by President Clinton, and others are considering broad...