Budget seeks $250M bond to launch school infrastructure improvements

PROVIDENCE — Gov. Gina Raimondo's 2019 budget calls for a massive infusion of spending to repair Rhode Island's deteriorating school buildings.

An engineering study recently concluded that the state's 306 public schools need $2.2 billion worth of repairs — $500 million alone to bring schools to minimum standards called "warm, safe and dry." The report found more than 50,000 deficiencies, many of them severe.

Her budget asks voters to approve a $250-million bond to begin what Raimondo is calling "a once-in-a-generation" investment in the state's aging school infrastructure. This would be in addition to the $80 million a year that the state has been spending on school construction, including repairs that address immediate health and safety hazards.

The governor is offering incentives or bonus points to cities and towns whose projects make "warm, safe and dry" repairs, improve access to early childhood and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs and consolidate schools, a concept called "newer and fewer." 

Raimondo's goal is to spend $1 billion on school facilities over the next 10 years, with municipalities taking on $350 million and the state financing the rest. 

A second referendum, for $250 million, would be put to the voters in 2022.

The budget proposal also calls for:

— $7.4 million to increase the number of quality early childhood education programs — $1.1 million more than last year.

— Another $260,000 to expand computer science classes at all grade levels, one of Raimondo's top education initiatives launched last year, that relies on strong in-kind donations from local universities and technology nonprofits.

— $100,000 to invest in quality reading curricula in the early elementary grades. Raimondo has promised to double the number of third graders reading at grade level by 2025.

Raimondo is also seeking to add $3.6 million to the Rhode Island Promise Scholarships, which provides two years of free tuition to the Community College of Rhode Island, provided students are enrolled full-time and maintain a 2.5 GPA. The budget book says "robust enrollment trends witnessed during the 2017-2018 school year are anticipated to continue unabated in 2018-2019."

On the higher education side, the governor's budget includes two major bonds: $45 million to improve the University of Rhode Island's Narragansett Bay campus, which houses the School of Oceanography, and $25 million to renovate the Feinstein School of Education & Human Development at Rhode Island College.

— lborg@providencejournal.com

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On Twitter: @lborgprojocom