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>>Narrator: This legislative summary is provided to you by Main Street Insider.
This week we examine H.R. 2394, the Rebuilding America’s Schools Act sponsored by Representative Charles Rangel.
When congress passed the 2009 Recovery Act, it included instruments to finance school building upgrades, known as Qualified School Construction Bonds.
>>Gov. Manchin: West Virginia became the first to use the Qualified School Construction Bonds statewide,
Which is letting us improve dozens of schools at a much lower cost.
>>Narrator: The Rebuilding America’s Schools Act renews and strengthens two major school construction bond programs through 2015:
It extends The Qualified School Construction Bonds stimulus provision, which allocates $11 billion/year for various school construction projects
And allows schools to borrow money at zero interest
And expands the Qualified Zone Academy Bonds Provision, which allows qualifying schools to borrow at little or NO INTEREST COST
To the stimulus-enhanced level of $1.4 billion/year
And modifies the program to waive the 10% private match requirement in certain circumstances in order to increase funding flexibility.
Most Republicans oppose this, and all stimulus spending, because they believe only the private sector, not the government can create jobs.
>>Boehner: All they want to do is grow the size of government. Government doesn’t create jobs!
>>Narrator: Supporters see this as a win-win proposal, creating jobs in the short-term,
While investing in future prosperity and global competitiveness through a stronger education system.
>>Rep. Rangel: The whole world is based on competition and trade,
And even though we have the edge, we used to have the cutting edge.
>>Narrator: The Rebuilding America’s Schools Act was refereed to the Ways & Means committee, but no action is scheduled.
It is unlikely to move as a stand-alone bill but may be included in a larger jobs package.
Tune in next Monday for another episode of 90 Second Summaries at
www.MainStreetInsider.org