November’s elections provided numerous surprises, twists and turns. While many of us are thankful things are quieting down, education institutions across the nation are getting ready to ramp things up.
More than 350 individual facilities capital-expenditure bond issues totaling more than $46 billion in proposed education construction projects were on the ballot in November. And the majority of these proposals (over 75%) were approved by voters—signaling the importance communities place on their education institutions.
The flux of money that will be flowing in to education construction projects continues to be abundant. In addition to the strong performance of education bonds last month, recent data from the U.S. Census Bureau puts the total value of education construction in the United States in 2016 at a seasonally adjusted rate of approximately $90 billion, up more than 3% from the same time last year.
California by and far had the largest number of education bond issues on the ballot, as well as the highest total dollar amount. Among the states that passed the largest total bond-issue amounts last month include California (more than $32 billion, which included a statewide $9 billion bond initiative to build and renovate K-12 and community college facilities throughout the state), Colorado ($3 billion), Texas ($2.7 billion), Oregon ($1.4 billion), Washington ($1.1 billion), Arizona ($1 billion) and North Carolina ($826 million).
At the individual bond-issue level, California dominated the Top 10 largest education issues passed in November. The top 10 include:
- Los Angeles Community College, CA ($3.3 billion)
- Long Beach USD, CA ($1.5 billion)
- Chino Valley USD, CA ($750 million, although it is still being certified at the time of this writing)
- San Juan USD, CA ($750 million)
- San Jose-Evergreen Community College, CA ($748 million)
- San Francisco USD, CA ($744 million)
- El Paso ISD, TX ($668.7 million)
- Desert Community College, CA ($577.9 million)
- Denver SD, CO ($572 million)
- East Side Union HSD, CA ($510 million)
The construction initiatives education institutions currently are involved in or are about to embark on will go a long way in addressing many of the facilities issues facing America’s schools and colleges.
