Finally!

Things are beginning to look up.

  • By Deborah P. Moore
  • 02/01/14

2014 looks to be a good year for education. After five years or more of funding cuts to education, many of our governors are reporting a budget surplus — and education spending is on their list! According to the fall 2013 Fiscal Survey of the States released in December by the National Association of State Budget Officers, “State budgets are expected to continue their trend of moderate improvement, making fiscal 2014 the fourth consecutive year of general fund spending growth. In contrast to the dramatic state budget declines during and immediately following the Great Recession, budgets have stabilized and significant fiscal distress continues to subside for most states.”

The survey also reports that spending increases in fiscal 2014 continue to be most heavily directed towards K-12 education and Medicaid, which received the majority of additional budget dollars. Forty-two states enacted general fund spending increases for K-12 education for a net increase of $8.8 billion. Forty-three states enacted spending increases for higher education.

Stabilization and growth — albeit slow growth — is also echoed in the outlook for school construction. This month’s issue includes the School Planning & Management 2014 School Construction Report. What you will see this year is that almost $13.4 billion was spent on school construction completed in 2013, an increase of more than $400 million from 2012. Slow growth, but growth nonetheless! If averages hold true, these buildings were started three years ago, when the economy was much more volatile and spending was tight. This bodes well for future construction numbers!

This trend is also echoed in the 2014 forecast on construction spending by the Associated General Contractors. Although not directed specifically at school construction, the forecast, based on a survey of 800 firms, states that construction spending is expected to rise between 8 to 10 percent in 2014, with the industry possibly adding between 250,000 and 350,000 jobs this year. According to Stephen Sandherr, the AGC’s CEO, contractors are more optimistic about 2014 than they have been in a long time, and many firms plan to begin hiring again.

I am an eternal optimist. And as boring as it may be to many of you, I enjoy analyzing the data and looking for connections and trends. Based on what I see here, I feel

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Three U.S. Universities Install Acre Security Access Control Platform

    Cloud-native physical and digital security solutions company Acre Security recently announced that it has deployed its access control platform at three major universities in the U.S., according to a news release. Acre partnered with Atrium Campus to provide coverage for more than 69,000 students at the University of Virginia (UVA), George Mason University, and Rockhurst University.

  • Photo courtesy of Spiezle Architectural Group, Inc.

    West Melbourne School for Science Completes Expansion Project

    The West Melbourne School for Science, which serves students grades PreK–6 in West Melbourne, Fla., recently completed a 12,450-square-foot elementary school expansion, according to a news release.

  • How One School Reimagined Learning Spaces—and What Others Can Learn

    When Collegedale Academy, a PreK–8 school outside Chattanooga, Tenn., needed a new elementary building, we faced the choice that many school leaders eventually confront: repair an aging facility or reimagine what learning spaces could be. Our historic elementary school held decades of memories for families, including some who had once walked its halls as children themselves. But years of wear and the need for costly repairs made it clear that investing in the old building would only patch the problems rather than solve them.

  • Elevating Campus Maintenance: How Power Wash Drones are Transforming Educational Facilities

    As today’s campuses grow larger and more architecturally complex, keeping exteriors clean, safe, and inviting has never been tougher. Facilities leaders are under constant pressure to stretch budgets, meet safety standards, and support sustainability goals—all while tackling the stubborn challenge of exterior cleaning.