School Funding Outlook
percentage. Utah, Arizona, Florida,
and Washington also continue to see
strong growth. On the other hand,
New York and Illinois saw a decline in
population.
All data SchoolBondFinder tracks
includes links to NCES (National
Center for Education Statistics) demo-
graphic information, as well as to on-
line news sources describing in greater
detail how bond issues and needs are
being presented to the local public.
Bond opportunities are also present-
ed on an interactive map, giving site
users the ability to select “favorite”
bonds for easy access and tracking, as
well as finely filter search results. Data
results can be listed directly from the
site or exported in a comma separated
value format (CSV) for import into
spreadsheets or customer relationship
management system, or exported as
alerts to a user’s email or SalesForce
installation.
Public education is in the midst of a
12 essentials | summer 2019
daunting shift in where state dollars may
potentially flow. This shift will present
many challenges but also opportunities
to companies who provide services in
construction, renovation, school safety,
technology, and transportation. The
opportunities will come from the ability
to track where aging facilities, deferred
maintenance, and population shifts have
led to public support for construction
and updating.
As more states begin to sup-
ply funding for educational choice
initiatives, there may also be more
bond dollars available for private and
charter school construction and reno-
vation as well. SchoolBondFinder will
continue monitoring these trends and
tracking where actionable dollars will
be available as capital projects move
through our system, from being on
our watch list, to being proposed for
an actual vote, and then to eventual
passage or failure.
It is important to note that “failed”
opportunities almost always come back
as future opportunities on our watch list.
From watch list, proposed, passed or
failed, the SchoolBondFinder platform
provides companies with an agile toolset
for staying tuned to real-time informa-
tion, shifting trends, and business oppor-
tunities. Early, accurate, information is
critical, now more than ever.
n
JIM NORWOOD is the Director of Inno-
vation for The
Amos Group. He
performs research,
development and
design for both
SchoolBondFinder
and SchoolBond-
Network. For
more information
on this EDmarket
member service,
please visit http://www.edmarket.org/
school-bond-finder/.