Rent-a-school plan would risk Robeson Co. school funding

Robeson County near the southern tip of North Carolina is poor. Unemployment is high, property values are low and the prospects for new industry are dim. Not surprisingly, Robeson’s schools — like others in poor regions of the state — struggle to pay for instruction and provide adequate school buildings.

People connected to the construction business now say they have a fix to make it easier for the county to replace out-of-date schools buildings, but State Treasurer Janet Cowell’s office is right to caution Robeson officials to beware of it.

Developer Robbie Ferris came up with a plan to get legislators to allow Robeson school officials to redirect money allocated for personnel — custodians, clerks, substitute teachers — and use it instead to help pay for long-term leases on new buildings. Ferris is head of architectural and development interests. Aaron Thomas, president of a construction company that builds schools around the state, is the manager of a Robeson economic development group that’s pushing for the bill. And the bill’s main sponsor in the state Senate is Sen. Wesley Meredith of Fayetteville, who owns a landscaping company that has worked with Thomas’s company.

The Treasurer’s Office objects to the idea on good grounds. It says Robeson might have to raise its per-person debt burden several fold to pay for the leases. And, Treasurer Janet Cowell said in a letter to legislators that “Allowing those who aim to profit from these plans to design the financing model is a bad deal for taxpayers and a conflict of interest.”

Precisely. In fact, the notion of allowing those with a potential financial interest to be involved in the planning is preposterous.

Ferris thinks this is a money-saving plan for the county, and he in fact believes other poor counties would benefit. (So, it appears, would construction interests.)

But Cowell’s office cautions that allowing personnel money to be moved around for leasing buildings is a radical change. And it questions what happens if the leasing plan doesn’t save as much money as forecast.

The state should step in to help Robeson with emergency school construction. The county should own its schools. Other poor counties should also get help from the state.

It’s fine to say that counties are responsible for school expenses, but it’s not fine for the state to write off its responsibility to provide good public education for all of North Carolina’s youngsters when poor counties can’t meet the needs of their children.

This story was originally published June 20, 2016 at 5:44 PM with the headline "Rent-a-school plan would risk Robeson Co. school funding."