DALLAS -- New school construction costs in Texas vary by as much as $200 per square foot, according to analysis by Texas Comptroller's Susan Combs.
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"Currently there is no required standard for reporting school construction costs, so it is extremely difficult for taxpayers to determine how their tax dollars are being spent," Combs said. "Unfortunately, we encountered numerous obstacles in our efforts to collect consistent, comparable school construction data and taxpayers are entitled to this information."
Combs cited the fast-growing suburban Houston school district Cypress-Fairbanks ISD's practice of using architectural prototypes that suit elementary, middle or high schools, saving months of construction time and hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The district, known locally as Cy-Fair, won approval of $1.2 billion of school construction bonds, the largest proposal on the May 10 ballot in Texas.
"We commend Comptroller Combs for her work on this issue and welcome more transparency as it relates to construction costs," Cy-Fair superintendent Mark Henry said in a prepared response to the Comptroller's findings. "These facts support the overwhelming voter approval from the historic May bond election."
Combs said she expected the new report to help voters as they consider bond proposals on the November ballot. Statewide, voters approved more than $5.5 billion of school construction bonds May 10.
"Schools can be built efficiently and less expensively, but districts don't always choose to do so," Combs said. "Our report provides taxpayers and school districts with additional information to consider when making those choices."
Although local school districts finance their own debt, they receive guarantees on their bonds from the Texas Permanent School Fund, which pays debt service in the event of default.
Combs recommended that the Texas Education Agency establish data collection and reporting standards concerning school construction costs to be reported through the Texas Student Data System or a successor data management system managed by the TEA.
The measures should include total construction cost, cost per square foot and per student, total square footage and total student capacity.
The TEA commissioner should also direct each school district and charter school operator to prepare an inventory of all of its existing facilities for inclusion in TEA's data system, Combs said. The inventory should include age, purpose, capacity, current enrollment and anticipated replacement date.
When TEA's data system is complete, the agency should report regional cost averages so that districts and their taxpayers can compare projected construction projects with other districts, she added.
The Texas Legislature should require all public and charter school districts and campuses to provide a direct, readily accessible link to TEA's school facilities data on their websites, Combs recommended.
Though TEA has the authority to collect data, it may need additional resources to implement these recommendations, she noted.
