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Throw a dart blindfolded this week and you'd probably hit a failed school bond. You remember school bonds, don't you? For decades, they've been our schools' ATM machines, figuratively speaking. Any time there was a physical need (or want) -- from vast new wings, to modern science labs, to palatial athletic facilities for our knee-high LeBron Jameses -- our schools floated multi-million dollar bonds so the costs didn't have to come directly out of their operating budgets. Borrowing by the fistful, however, schools never had to make the choice between new roofs and books.
This might mark the moment when our old free money ways officially ended.
Last week, well-heeled Rye rejected a school bond. Thats right: Rye, home to some of the priciest real estate in the nation, kicked a school bond to the curb. It was for $20 million to build new classrooms and refurbish others.
Until now, school bond passages in places like Rye were as reliable as ornamental cabbages. Lest you think forces at play were specific to Rye, a $25 million bond in the Hendrick-Hudson district also got chucked last week, there by a factor of 2-1. Ossining voters turned down a $69 million proposal in the spring and the wary school board is now debating whether to present the public with a scaled-down plan. Sensing a pattern here?
Voters are in a churlish mood, but it might not even matter. There are reputable analysts -- like Meredith Whitney, who called the housing bubble -- who say that the same thing is happening with municipal bonds and the market will fall to ruin. Even if the entire market does not unspool, however, the reality is that school bonds will not pass. For the foreseeable future, voters wont go for them. Even Rye is sending them down.
What does that mean? Well, all physical improvement and costs for added space will, by hook or crook, have to come out of our school's operating budgets. Capital outlay lines in school budget will have to stretch beyond recognition. Or college style capital campaigns have to be started.
Interestingly enough, Yonkers, the city of hills where nothing is on the level, appeared to speak to an alternative. They announced a grand plan last week: a 15 year $1.7 billion plan to revive the physical well-being of its schools. Wheres the money coming from? Not bonds, which are a non-starter. Not a capital campaign. Officials presented a vague promise of various public-private partnerships, to be forged sometime in the future. In other words, dont hold your breath that a thin dime of this $1.7 billion will come through. Sad? Incredibly. But part of our current public school reality.
Our schools free cash machine has permanently clogged. What will happen next is anyones wild guess.
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Marek Fuchs is the author of "A Cold-Blooded Business," the true story of a murderer, from Westchester, who almost got away with it. His upcoming book on volunteer firefighting across America, Local Heroes, is due out in 2012. He wrote The New York Times' "County Lines" column about life in Westchester for six years and teaches non-fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College, in Bronxville. He also serves as a volunteer firefighter. You can contact Marek through his website: www.marekfuchs.com or on Twitter: @MarekFuchs.
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