Washington, D.C. -— U.S. Rep. Bob Etheridge (D-Lillington) today told members of a key Congressional panel about North Carolina’s critical need for school construction funds as he testified about legislation that would help states to build schools.
“Across North Carolina, local communities are crying out for help with school construction. It is plain as day that the states lack the capacity to deal with this issue. We need national leadership,” said Etheridge. “Our national competitiveness depends on effective federal-local partnerships to make every school a world-class learning institution. That effort begins with school construction.”
Etheridge, the only former state schools chief serving in Congress, gave the testimony during a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Education and Labor Committee. The hearing, “Modern Public School Facilities, Investing in the Future,” examined legislative proposals for building and modernizing schools.
Etheridge, who does not serve on the committee, was invited to testify about his legislation H.R. 2470, The America’s Better Classrooms Act of 2007. The bill will provide a federal tax credit to bond holders to pay the interest on local school bonds. The state or school district would only be responsible for repaying the principal. The bill will provide federal support in partnership with local officials to leverage about $25 billion in bonds for school construction. North Carolina would receive about $488 million under the proposal.
U.S. House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charlie Rangel (D-NY) is the sponsor of the bill, and Rep. Jim Ramstad (R-MN) and Etheridge are the lead cosponsors. Etheridge introduced similar legislation in his first term in Congress a decade ago.
For each $1,000 of school bonds, states or local school districts would save as much as $500 in total payments. The bill would provide $25 billion over the next two fiscal years for zero interest school modernization bonds. It also includes $2.4 billion for schools located in Empowerment Zones, Enterprise Communities or communities in which 35 percent of their students are eligible for free or reduced price school lunches as part of the Qualified Zone Academy Bond (QZAB) initiative.
The bill would allocate 60 percent of the $25 billion in school modernization bonds to states based on school—age population. The remaining 40 percent would be directly allocated to the 125 school districts with the largest number of low-income students.