Dive Brief:

• A Pennsylvania state law reimburses school districts for the cost of construction and maintenance on school buildings, but the state now owes districts millions of dollars, triggering threats of lawsuits from a state school board group.
• The agreements, known as PlanCon, is legally enforceable, yet state politicians removed money from the 2015–16 budget.
• A spokesman for Gov. Tom Wolf said that the only way to find money for PlanCon would be to shift the burden of the taxpayers and raise taxes.

Dive Insight:

Millions of dollars in borrowing fees and interest were racked up by school districts in Pennsylvania, due to a statewide budget impasse that still weighs heavily on schools. Some districts have struggled to get loans approved or had their credit downgraded as a result of the borrowing and budget showdown. Worse, an audit revealed a series of management issues in the state's cash-strapped education system.

Pennsylvania's far from the only state struggling to find the money needed to fix decaying schools. In fact, a report released at the end of March found that the United States would need to spend an additional $46 billion annually on school building construction and maintenance in order to ensure safe and healthy facilities for students. The average age of the typical school building in the U.S. is more than 40 years old, and school buildings in Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Oregon and Nevada are reportedly the worst.