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House approves a 'green' school-construction bill

WASHINGTON - The House yesterday passed a multiyear school-construction bill with the ambitious goals of producing hundreds of thousands of jobs, reducing energy consumption, and creating healthier, cleaner environments for schoolchildren.

WASHINGTON - The House yesterday passed a multiyear school-construction bill with the ambitious goals of producing hundreds of thousands of jobs, reducing energy consumption, and creating healthier, cleaner environments for schoolchildren.

Opponents, almost all Republicans, objected to the cost associated with the 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act: $6.4 billion in the first year, with similar outlays approved over the next five years.

It passed, 275-155, and now goes to the Senate, which did not act after the House approved a similar bill last year.

The situation has changed this year. While President George W. Bush threatened to veto the measure, objecting to a costly new school-construction program, President Obama made school-improvement projects an element of his stimulus initiative.

The bill would give states money to make grants and low-interest loans so school districts could build, modernize, and repair facilities to make them healthier, safer, and more energy-efficient.

The funds would be allotted under a formula based on a district's share of students from low-income families, but the bill guarantees that every district that receives federal money for low-income students will get at least $5,000.

Supporters spoke of the difficulties of trying to learn in buildings with poor lighting, bad air quality, leaking roofs, and ill-functioning furnaces.

A majority of the funds - rising to 100 percent by 2015 - would have to be used for projects that meet green standards for construction materials and energy sources.

The measure also approves a separate $600 million over six years for public schools in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Alabama damaged in 2005 by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

But Rep. Michael Castle (R., Del.) asked whether the nation could "afford to add another education program that is going to be underfunded." He and Rep. Joseph R. Pitts (R., Pa.) voted against the bill; all other Philadelphia-area representatives voted for it.