Governor Rendell Announces More Than $600 Million Available for School Districts for New Construction, Energy-Savings, and Science

HARRISBURG, Pa., June 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dozens of school districts across Pennsylvania will get a funding boost for a wide range of new construction projects, with attractive financing that will save hundreds of millions of dollars, Governor Edward G. Rendell announced today.

Governor Rendell said 46 school districts will receive more than $600 million in bonds made possible through the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The ARRA program will save the districts – and taxpayers -- an estimated $513 million in financing costs.

"These funds will help put people to work on vital construction projects, save energy costs and help improve educational programs – and the attractive financing will save the taxpayers more than half a billion in financing costs," Governor Rendell said. "With federal help, we lowered costs and are helping our districts make these terrific improvements. It's what the Recovery Act is all about."

Governor Rendell said the school districts – a mix of large and small, rural and urban -- will use the special financing toward projects that will reduce their energy or water consumption, construction that will enable a district to boost its kindergarten, pre-K or upgrade early childhood education, or give more students access to science, technology or engineering lab settings.

The 46 school districts have plans for 101 projects which meet those priorities; 63 projects will reduce energy or water consumption; 28 will improve early childhood education facilities and; 27 will increase access to applied learning labs.

Pennsylvania's allocation for the Qualified School Construction Bonds was $602 million – the sixth largest allocation in the nation. Under the program, the federal government pays essentially 100 percent of the interest on the QSCB bonds, which are issued under the recovery act's Build America Bonds program.

"We went one step further to decrease the costs," Governor Rendell said. "For the first time in the commonwealth's history, we're doing one single bond issue, which means that rather than 46 school districts each paying their own bond counsel and underwriting, the Public School Building Authority will handle the function for all of them at once.  It means that each district will pay just a small portion of the one-time cost for the bond work."

Governor Rendell was joined today by representatives of four districts receiving the funds: Lancaster, Palmyra, Donegal and York.

Below is a list, by region, of school districts eligible for QSCB funds, and the amount (in thousands):

For more information, visit the Department of Education online at www.pde.state.pa.us. For more information about how the commonwealth is investing federal Recovery Act funds to benefit Pennsylvania residents, visit www.recovery.pa.gov.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Office of the Governor

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