New life for schools
IT'S AN IDEA with bipartisan roots. It could save taxpayers millions in Virginia--billions across the United States. It requires just a bit of federal legislative tweaking. So what's not to like?
Well, it's a simple idea, perhaps not so simply conveyed, and it requires that a splintered Congress agree to it, which we all know is a lot to expect. Residents of Fredericksburg have saved themselves millions, and done the local community a world of good, by using federal and state rehabilitation tax credits that make it financially plausible to rescue the deteriorating historical structures that give the city its unique character.
Paul Goldman, the political strategist and former Virginia Democratic Party chairman, has for years pushed the concept of extending those tax credits to the rehabilitation of schools. By modernizing older, existing schools, you avoid the expense of building new ones--especially high schools that around here would now cost in excess of $50 million to construct. You also avoid having to find and buy the land while pursuing the time-consuming and often rancorous planning and construction process.
Because they have always been constructed to house our children safely, schools are generally built to last--in many cases well beyond their obsolescence as educational facilities. The issues they have, such as asbestos use, antiquated floor plans, and broken or inadequate utility systems, can be dealt with if the work can be made financially feasible.
Federal rehabilitation tax credits provide an off-the-top tax break equivalent to 20 percent of the project investment. But as it is written, the law, passed in 1986 during the Reagan administration, won't permit it. First, it excludes tax-exempt buildings, which schools are. Second, the IRS has a "prior use" rule, which requires the structure to take on a new use--so a school can't become a school. It was acceptable, for example, to transform Fredericksburg's Maury School building into condominiums.
Modifying the federal law as necessary, and perhaps adjusting Virginia law as well to allow state tax credits to apply, would save local governments serious money.
Working with Mr. Goldman, GOP Gov. Bob McDonnell has relaunched the effort to gain passage of the Rehabilitation of Historic Schools Act. The idea has been endorsed over the years by Sen. Mark Warner, Sen. Tim Kaine, former Sen. Jim Webb (all Democrats), Rep. Eric Cantor, and former Gov. George Allen (both Republicans).
Mr. Kaine, in fact, while he was governor, helped clear the way for the program to work for the old Maggie Walker School in Richmond, transforming the beautiful old building into a governor's school for high-achieving students--a successful experiment.
If the goal is to reduce government spending and borrowing, this program does just that. If the goal is to salvage and renew old structures, it also does that. If the goal is to achieve bipartisan agreement, the track record is already established.
If only Congress would oil its creaky wheels and get this done, school districts and taxpayers across the commonwealth and country would benefit.
POSTSCRIPT
Speaking of schools, Virginia students in 2012-13 made strides in the ACT, a college-readiness test taken by 26 percent of the state's high-school graduates. This is significant for two reasons: (1) ACT scores nationwide fell while Virginia's rose, suggesting that (2) cliched criticisms of "teaching to the test" aside, learning accrued under the state SOLs carries over to other measurements of students' knowledge.
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