Hogan and Franchot withhold $10 million from county in fight over school AC

Kopp, Hogan and Franchot. Photo via Peter Franchot.

The Board of Public Works, during a meeting that at least one observer called “a fiasco,”  today withheld $10 million from Baltimore County school construction because of a fight over air conditioning. It also withheld $5 million from Baltimore City schools. They said the school systems may have the money once they have a plan for installing portable AC in all schools that don’t already have AC by the beginning of the next school year.

David Lever, head of school construction for the state, resigned over the move.

Gov. Larry Hogan and Comptroller Peter Franchot, who make up two thirds of the board, are pressing for the county to install portable AC units in schools that don’t have central air. Baltimore County Executive Kevin Kamenetz has said he doesn’t want to do that because it would be a costly “Band-Aid” approach and he says he has a plan to have central AC in all schools by 2019. (This has raised concerns among parents at schools like Dulaney High School, which lacks AC but which parents say is too rundown to fix. They say an entirely new building is needed and they fear putting central air in will further discourage the county from making this investment.)

Kamenetz said in Facebook post that

Today’s action by the Governor is illegal and irresponsible. Obviously the Governor cares more about politics than building 21st century schools. We will continue to implement our unprecedented $1.3 billion Schools for our Future plan and provide central air to the remaining ten schools.

In another statement, Kamenetz said:

Baltimore County is in the midst of a comprehensive $1.3 billion plan to build and renovate schools, add classroom seats,  and install central air conditioning in every single Baltimore County school by 2019. In his desire to punish Baltimore County and Baltimore City, the Governor intentionally misstated the county’s plan, refused multiple opportunities to be presented with the facts, and disregarded the clear legal advice of the Attorney General of the State of Maryland. It is regrettable, but understandable, that the longstanding and well-respected Chief of State School Construction would resign in protest.

Hogan said on his Facebook page:

This is no longer just about air conditioning in schools, it has become a public health issue. I stand with Comptroller Peter Franchot in steadfast commitment to providing all Maryland students with a healthy and safe learning environment. It is unacceptable that the education of thousands of students is being disrupted because they are left in sweltering, unhealthy classrooms, resulting in sickness, and in some cases, trips to the emergency room – all because the leaders tasked with solving these issues are more interested in playing political games than finding solutions.

We’ve given the leadership in Baltimore County every opportunity to address this problem. We asked them to come before the Board of Public Works to state their case but they refused and continued to ignore the problem. They claim their plan will solve this problem by 2021 but that is far too long for these deplorable conditions to persist. Students, parents, and teachers need immediate action.

Most shockingly, the Baltimore County School Board currently has a budget surplus of $40 million. The school board tried to solve the air conditioning issue by allocating $10 million in their budget to immediately install air conditioning units. For some unknown reason, the Baltimore County Executive continues to oppose bringing immediate relief to these students and cut those funds from the school board’s budget.

Today, with support from Comptroller Franchot, the Board of Public Works passed a motion to withhold $10 million from Baltimore County’s capital budget request and $5 million from Baltimore City’s request until both jurisdictions return with a plan detailing how they are going to install air conditioning units by the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year.

The time for games is over. I believe it is our obligation to provide relief from these stifling, unhealthy classroom environments for our students and teachers, and I will continue to fight for them until they receive the relief they deserve.

And Franchot said:

I was proud to stand with Governor Hogan, in a spirit of true bipartisanship, on behalf of tens of thousands of children who are now forced to work in school buildings that are unsafe, unhealthy and unfit for learning. At today’s meeting of the Board of Public Works, the Governor and I voted to approve the State of Maryland’s proposed Public School Construction Program in full.

However, we also voted to hold $10 million of the allotment for Baltimore County, and $5 million for Baltimore City, until both of those school systems provide us with a plan to install portable air conditioning units in non-air conditioned classrooms prior to the start of the next school year.

It is our hope that these two systems will promptly submit their plans, that their full school construction allocations can promptly be released and – most important of all – that innocent children, teachers and school employees will have the benefits of an amenity that the vast majority of us currently take for granted.

It is truly a shame that it came to this, after five long years of begging these two systems to step up and do the right thing. But I am truly tired of visiting these schools and seeing children who are forced to sit, and try to learn, in conditions that none of us would want for our own children. And it devastates me when parents ask me why some children are important enough to receive air conditioning in their schools while theirs, apparently, are not. That’s who I am fighting for, and I’m proud to be working alongside Governor Hogan to achieve meaningful and long-overdue progress on what I consider to be a moral imperative.

 

Nancy Kopp, the third member of the board, voted against withholding the money.

For more details, here’s a story about it in The Baltimore Sun.