SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION
K-12 Annual Construction Report
By Paul Abramson | Intelligence for Education, Inc.
T
he more things remain the same, the more they
seem to change. Contradictory, but in the realm of
school construction, apparently true.
Last year, in looking at data for school construction
completed in 2012, I noted that for the first time in five
years the total value of construction put in place in a
calendar year had risen from the year before. The uptick
was hardly huge (a $700 million increase after a five-year
fall of almost $8 billion) but it represented a slight turnaround.
What was noticeable was that all of the increase
was attributable to spending on fixing up and enlarging
existing buildings. The amount spent on new schools had
continued to fall.
8 essentials | summer 2014
I suggested that this was due, in part, to the effects of
the Recession, starting in 2008, that had put many projects on hold. As the economy began to improve even very
slightly, the pent-up demand to fix deteriorating buildings
seemed to be driving an increase in spending.
School construction in 2013 continued to climb very
slightly (increasing about $400 million over 2012) but last
year it was the completion of new buildings that drove the
increase. Spending for completed new school buildings rose
$1.4 billion from 2012 when it was at a 16-year low, while
spending for additions and retrofit fell back.
Why new schools rather than improvement to existing
ones? Without interviewing leaders in districts across the
nation, one can only speculate based on analysis of infor-