Is a cold snap exposing a big lie in Maryland school funding?

Audit Discloses Backlog of Unissued Public School Maintenance Inspection Reports

https://www.ola.state.md.us/Reports/Fiscal%20Compliance/BPW-IAC16.pdf

Maryland official proposes drastically cutting back public school inspections

The Maryland official who oversees public school construction has proposed to drastically cut back inspections of local school buildings, saying that the state does not have enough staff to keep up.
With hundreds of millions of state dollars each year invested in public schools, Maryland has had an aggressive program of inspections. State inspectors aim to visit more than 200 schools a year to check such things as roof condition, electrical and plumbing systems, the upkeep of grounds, recreational equipment and fire safety.
Any problems are reported to the local superintendent with instructions to get them fixed.
David G. Lever, head of the state's Interagency Committee on School Construction, proposed Wednesday that the target for inspections be reduced from this year's 220 schools to 100 during the fiscal year that begins July 1. That would extend the time between inspections from once every six years to once every eight...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-school-inspections-20160615-story.html

Hogan and Franchot take an 'astonishing' step

The obsession with window air conditioning in Baltimore county and city public schools by Comptroller Peter Franchot, joined of late by Gov. Larry Hogan, is no longer amusing. On Wednesday, their heavy-handed tactics to force local officials to immediately install window units in some 4,000 classrooms went beyond political grandstanding into the realm of doing real damage to students and to a system of making hard choices on how to allocate limited funds that has long served the state well. The governor and comptroller decided to hold back $10 million to renovate county schools and $5 million for city schools unless city and county officials do something that is probably impossible, possibly illegal and certainly fiscally wasteful. In the process, they disrespected the Baltimore County superintendent, smeared the integrity of the attorney general and his staff, bullied the treasurer and prompted the man who has guided the state's school construction program for 13 years to resign. It was ugly, unbecoming and ultimately unproductive...

 http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-air-conditioning-20160512-story.html

governor called Lever "a major part of the problem."

Gov. Larry Hogan said Thursday he's "very pleased" with the decision of the state's school construction chief to resign amid the ongoing battle over school air conditioning in Baltimore city and county.
David Lever has headed the Interagency Committee on School Construction, a state agency that reviews school construction projects and spending, since 2003.
On Wednesday, Lever criticized the vote by Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot on the Board of Public Works to withhold $15 million from Baltimore city and county school systems unless they install portable air conditioners in schools over the summer.
Lever said the decision politicized school construction funding and prompted his decision to step down, effective in September.

Hogan said he's glad to see him go.
At a news conference in Annapolis, the Republican governor called Lever "a major part of the problem."...

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/politics/bs-md-air-conditioning-reax-20160512-story.html

BREAKING: David Lever, head of the MD committee on school construction resigns his position

BREAKING: David Lever, head of the MD committee on school construction resigns his position #MdPolitics

— Bryan P. Sears (@bpsears) May 11, 2016

Time could be running out for state’s top school construction official.

...In November, Hogan chided Lever for failing to keep up with required reports on how school systems were maintaining their respective facilities, which are paid for in part with state funds. The agency was three years behind.
Lever in January told Hogan that a lack of staff caused the backlog and when Hogan asked how many additional workers he would need to get up to date, Lever asked for one and promised a Jan. 1 deadline for delivering the reports.
Ten months later, Lever told Hogan that timeline was somewhat optimistic and that the reports might be several more weeks and once again suggested that part of the problem was inadequate staffing.
It was during that same meeting that Hogan and Franchot criticized Lever for what they saw as a half-hearted review of practices used to build a charter school in Anne Arundel County. Hogan ordered the review in an effort to identify best practices that could be used by the state to be more cost-effective and therefore build more schools without substantial budget increases...

 http://thedailyrecord.com/2016/05/04/is-the-clock-running-on-david-lever/

Panel considers sweeping changes to Md. school construction

ANNAPOLIS — A $3 billion gap in state funding needed to satisfy growing statewide school construction needs could lead to a wholesale changes in how Maryland funds and builds the projects.
Requests from the state’s 23 counties and Baltimore city are expected to approach $4.5 billion through fiscal 2022 but anticipated funding only will approach about one-third of that, according to David G. Lever, the executive director of the Interagency Commission on School Construction.
“The problems are quite different across the state and yet we can say that every jurisdiction in one way or another is facing major capital requirements,” Lever said Thursday while speaking to the 21st Century School Facilities Commission.
The 28-member commission, established by House Speaker Michael E. Busch and Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller Jr., met for the first time in an effort to make recommendations on how the state can better address the billions of dollars in school construction and renovation needs statewide. Those recommendations could result in the most wide-sweeping overhaul of how Maryland pays for construction and renovation since former Gov. Marvin Mandel established the state school construction program in the early 1970s...

 http://thedailyrecord.com/2016/04/29/panel-considers-sweeping-changes-to-md-school-construction/

Peter Franchot: ‏@peterfranchot Yesterday was a bad day for parents, teachers, students, & advocates for transparency in education.

Peter Franchot

19 hrs ·

Over the past couple of days, Marylanders from across our state have been calling me to express their shock and outrage over the actions that have been taken by the General Assembly in passing next year's capital budget.

For those who may have missed all of this, two amendments were added to the capital budget that will have a significant effect on the quality of public education, and public school governance, in the State of Maryland.

The first would remove the Board of Public Works from the state's public school construction appeals process altogether, and leave state funding and oversight completely in the hands of an obscure, unelected body that meets in virtual privacy. And in so doing, take away from concerned teachers, families and taxpayers the opportunity to express their concerns before the Governor, Comptroller and Treasurer in a transparent, public forum.

The second amendment would prohibit the use of state school construction dollars for portable air conditioning units in Baltimore County and Baltimore City - where tens of thousands of children suffer in temperatures that approach triple digits on warm school days. Many of you may recall that Governor Hogan and I worked together earlier this year to approve regulations that would allow the State to make timely investments in short-term temperature relief, just as local school systems around the state have done, with great success, for years.

All of this in a budget bill that was never intended to serve as a platform for legislative policymaking. None of this done with public hearings, advance notice, input or consent from Marylanders who foot the bill for the General Assembly.

To everyone who feels this is an inexplicable betrayal of the public trust, rest assured that I understand your frustration. And I've been in Annapolis long enough to know what is occurring. It is simply another cynical effort to limit the authority of the Board of Public Works, simply because Governor Hogan had the audacity to win the 2014 gubernatorial election and because I've had the audacity to set partisanship aside to work with the Governor on behalf of fiscal responsibility.
While these amendments were intended as shots at Governor Hogan and me, the children of our state - along with their families and teachers - are the ones who are really hurt by these Annapolis power plays. These actions represent the worst of public policy, because they put the health and safety of innocent people at risk, and because they have been done with an utter lack of transparency.
Fortunately for all of us, their efforts will ultimately prove ineffective. I will continue, with vigor, to use the Board of Public Works as a platform for asking hard questions and demanding accountability from education bureaucrats who receive hundreds of millions in taxpayer dollars. While I cannot speak for Governor Hogan, I suspect he feels the same way.

I know that so many of you have waited so long, and worked so hard, to protect your children from the health and safety effects of sweltering classrooms. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for standing up and being a part of this good fight. And please take my word that our fight will not only continue, but will escalate - both this year and beyond - until every classroom in Baltimore County and Baltimore City has the same temperature controls that are taken for granted in those backrooms in Annapolis. As I said last fall, we will get this done. We will protect the health and safety of our children, whether we do it the easy way or the hard way.

 https://www.facebook.com/peterfranchot/posts/838645356239518