We build schools because we want to
Rob Price

I have a friend who grew up in France but moved to the U.S. about 15 years ago. He tutors children in French, driving from one end of Steuben County to the other, and he has taught students in Hornell, Bath and Corning, all of which have big busy school districts with big, sprawling campuses and buildings.

The school buildings amaze him. He asks me what it is about Americans that drives them to construct such large edifices for the purpose of educating a slowly declining student population. Surely, he wonders, all this floor space is unnecessary.

I am always at a loss when he kids me about our palatial school facilities. Over the last 17 years, I have written more articles about school districts' capital projects and attended more public meetings on capital projects than I can possibly remember. It has been rare, I have to admit, for me to encounter a capital project I didn't like. Maybe this is because I had a child in the public school system and sentimentally wanted all her fellow students to have the best facilities possible. Still, my friend's question has an element of common sense I can't deny. Why indeed do we keep building bigger school facilities when our population is gradually declining?

Don't misunderstand me: The Hornell and Bath school districts are bringing capital projects to a vote, and I have nothing against either one. Since I live in Hornell, I'll vote in favor of its project. If I lived in Bath, I'd vote in favor of that project, and if I lived in Corning I'd just bang my head against the wall, regretting how that school district's "Option Two" capital project went down the drain five years ago.

Most of my support for capital projects has stemmed from the simple math: The State of New York pays for the bulk of capital construction costs assumed by poorer school districts like Hornell and Bath. When the state is willing to pay 90 percent of a multimillion-dollar project, and local taxes are slated rise by only one or two percentage points as a result of that project, I personally can't say no.

Yes, I've heard critics of capital projects say the state is using "our" money to pay for such projects. But frankly, the state is using very little of Hornell or Bath taxpayers' money when it kicks in the lion's share of a building project. We may think our state income taxes are excessive, but the amount of income taxes generated on Manhattan Island and the downstate exurbs and suburbs is astronomical compared to what we generate in western New York. The state is not giving "our" money back to us in the form of building aid; it's giving Wall Streets investment bankers' money to us. As long as Wall Streeters don't mind paying their taxes, I don't mind our school districts getting their cut.

But surely, my friend argues, all that money could be used for other things. Better roads? Social services? Of course, he is right. There are lots of other ways we could spend the state's income tax dollars. It's just that we choose to spend it on school buildings - just as Europeans from the Middle Ages through the Renaissance chose to spend astronomical sums of money on churches and cathedrals.

Frankly, the only European phenomenon I can think of that resembles our devotion to large school facilities is the construction of sprawling religious edifices. Think of the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris; St. Peter's in Rome. And there are hundreds of smaller churches in villages across Europe that are architectural gems and attract hordes of summer tourists -- many from small towns and village in New York. And the only comparable piece of architecture those visitors have back home is the local central school building.

Of course, there are magnificent palaces and castles in Europe that were built with public monies and for sheer architectural bravado rival the great churches. But they were built for the enjoyment of a few. Great churches in Europe were built for a community's common purpose. They were places where members of a city or village could gather in order to practice their religious devotions.

Likewise, throughout New York state, communities have agreed to build public school buildings where their children are to be educated and the community can gather to watch sporting events, concerts and the annual spring musical. Do we need all the frills? The smart boards? The computer stations? Need, I would argue, isn't the issue. A village doesn't need a church designed in the gothic manner. Europeans chose to spend their money on flying buttresses. New Yorkers choose to spend their money on auditoriums. We build schools because we want to.