Legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to help public schools finance critical infrastructure projects received a push forward on Friday with an endorsement from two national thought leaders on the subject.
Former U.S. Rep. Bill Archer (R-TX), who served as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, and Samara Barend, the leader of the nonprofit U.S. Performance Based Building Coalition, highlighted Kelly’s bill in an op-ed published by Politico.
Archer and Barend addressed the nation’s crumbling schools in the op-ed, writing that the most helpful approaches to updating public infrastructure aren’t available to public schools.
“The good news is that last week Reps. Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Earl Blumenauer (D-OR) — a conservative Republican and a liberal Democrat — introduced a bill with significant bipartisan support that would change the tax code to create a new category of Private Activity Bonds (PABs) for schools,” Archer and Barend wrote. “The bill creates $5 billion in such bonds for schools and other government owned facilities with minimal direct cost to the federal government. More importantly, the bill would enable school districts to enjoy lower financing costs while employing the ingenuity of the private sector and transferring considerable financial risk away from taxpayers.”
Archer and Barend added that public-private partnerships are “not a panacea” but have the ability to fast-track large-scale school construction projects and to do more with fewer tax dollars.
“Congress should pass the Kelly-Blumenauer bill and empower school districts —as they have transportation agencies — with essential federal financing tools that catalyze the use of private investment and innovation to rebuild our nation’s dilapidated and dangerous schools,” Archer and Barend wrote.
Kelly recently undertook a tour of public schools in Erie, Pennsylvania, to discuss how his bill, the Public Buildings Renewal Act, would allow state and local governments to access PABs to finance critical construction and infrastructure projects.
“Well, what it does is it encourages the private sector to get involved with the public sector in order to make investments that will prove well for everybody,” Kelly said during one of his stops. “Its a win-win situation. Now, by win-win I mean a win for private sector and win for the public sector, but more than anything it’s a win for our kids.”
PABs are already used for public transportation projects. Kelly’s bill would amend tax code so that PABs could also be used to finance projects at qualified government buildings, like public schools.
After a tour of Lincoln Elementary School in Erie, Kelly said, “There’s a lot of work to be done.”
“(The bill) encourages the private sector to get involved with the public sector in order to make investment that are going to prove well for everybody,” Kelly said. “When you can incentivize people to actually invest, then they’ll do it.”
The bill has also enjoyed support from local public education officials in Erie.
“I’m supportive of anything that will help us to find a way to provide equitable school buildings,” Jay Badams, the superintendent of Erie Public Schools, said “This actually could help us to pursue a public-private solution to funding school renovations.”
The bill also has broad support in the House of Representatives. U.S. Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), Carlos Curbelo (R-FL), Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) are among the bill’s cosponsors.