You asked for the per-capita bond debt for all 50 states, including debt issued by states, counties, localities, and public authorities. You were interested in general obligation (GO) bond debt only. You also asked how other states pay for school construction projects and how much funding they provide.

STATE GO BOND DEBT

The tables below list the total, combined, “full faith and credit” or GO bond debt for each state, including GO debt issued by counties, localities, and public authorities. The information is for FY 04, the most recent year available and excludes debt backed by revenue bonds. Table 1 shows states alphabetically; Table 2 ranks them by per-capita debt from highest to lowest. Statistics come from Congressional Quarterly's 2007 State Fact Finder for 2007. CQ's data source is the U.S. Census.

Table 1: State and Local GO Bond Debt Per-Capita, FY 04

Table 2: State and Local GO Bond Debt, Per-Capita, FY 04 – Ranked

SCHOOL CONSTRUCTION FUNDING

Funding Sources

Like Connecticut, most other states finance school construction projects through a combination of state and local financing. According to a June 14, 2000 National Governors' Association report, funding for school construction projects comes from various sources in other states. The main source is local GO bonding. State aid for school projects comes primarily from state GO bonds. State aid for school maintenance, where available, is primarily funded from state budget appropriations. Some states, such as California, allow localities to charge developers impact fees to fund local school projects. Arizona funds its court-mandated school facilities program with dedicated revenues from its sales tax, known as the “transaction privilege tax.”

Funding Formulas

According to the Education Commission of the States, 38 states provide state support for school construction capital projects. State funding formulas fall into five main categories. Some states use more than one type of formula:

● Flat grants provide specified amounts for school construction distributed either on a per-student or per-school-district basis. Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, South Carolina, and Virginia use this form of funding.

● Equalized funding provides aid to school districts based on wealth, with higher percentages of funding going to poorer districts. The following 22 states use this type of program: Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

● Grants based on need provide state funding to poor districts that cannot finance their own capital projects. The following 12 states have this type of program: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and West Virginia.

● Basic support provides school districts with a per-student amount. Funds are distributed annually regardless of a district's facility needs. Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, and Tennessee have such programs.

● Full state funding. Arizona and Hawaii are the only states that fund 100% of capital costs for all school facilities.

The following 12 states provide no direct state funding for school projects: Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, and South Dakota.

Funding Amounts

As part of an October 2006 study, the 21^st Century School Fund, a Washington, D.C. education organization that specializes in school facility issues, published information on each state's per-pupil school construction spending from 1995-2004. Connecticut ranked second among the 50 states with a 10-year total of $11,345 per-pupil. (Alaska was first, with $12,842 per-pupil.) State-by-state funding amounts are shown in the table below, which is taken from the report. The table is based on information from McGraw Hill's construction databases and the National Center for Education Statistics.

Source: Growth and Disparity: A Decade of U.S. Public School Construction, Building Educational Success Together, 21^st Century School Fund, October 2006.

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