Financial Crisis Now Striking Home for School Districts

Project Delays, Worries About Cash Flow Result of Tight Credit Markets

The crisis besetting U.S. and world financial markets is hitting school districts hard, as they struggle to float the bonds needed for capital projects, borrow money to ensure cash flow, and get access to investment funds locked up in troubled institutions.

• In Cumberland County, N.C., school officials froze plans to build a $20 million elementary school in the 53,000-student district after a neighboring county failed to find buyers for $454 million of its own construction bonds.

• The state of Maine has delayed 12 major school construction projects totaling $348 million in 11 school districts. In other states, even districts able to borrow money are paying higher interest rates while bracing for yet another...

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