Facilities Spending Criticized as Uneven

But $600 Billion Investment Seen to Exceed Expectations

States and school districts spent almost $600 billion on building and renovating schools from 1995 to 2004, an amount that far exceeds earlier expectations, concludes a report released last week.

But the money, by and large, did not go to the disadvantaged districts that needed it the most, the authors say.

“Our analysis reaffirms our worst suspicions,” Mary W. Filardo, the executive director of the 21st Century School Fund, one of the members of the partnership that produced the report, writes in its foreword. “Despite record spending on school construction, low-income and minority students, who already experience disadvantages, have had far less investment in their school facilities than their...