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required and what's merely recommended, they sometimes run into a brick wall, buck- <br />passing between state and local officials, or both. <br />State funding biases <br />Like acreage standards, state reimbursement policies can also tip the. scales in <br />favor of building new schools and against the upgrading of existing schools. <br />One problem is the so-called "60% rule." This says: If the cost of renovating an <br />older school exceeds 60% of the cost of a new school, the school district should build a <br />new school if the district wants to receive financial assistance from the state.l $ The <br />....percentages vary: Massachusetts has applied a 50% rule; Minnesota, a 60% rule; <br />Washington State, an SO% rule. <br />The problem with such arbitrary percentage rules is that they prevent a full cost <br />analysis by state and local governments and arbitrarily eliminate sound renovation <br />projects. Certain new construction costs -- items such as land acquisition, water and <br />sewer line extensions, transportation and road work, for example -- may not be factored <br />into the comparison. The same thing is true of the costs of maintaining or demolishing a <br />school building taken out of service. If these costs were considered, renovation projects <br />might meet the percentage rule more easily.19 The rules also discount other values, such <br />as a community's desire to maintain a school as a neighborhood anchor ar to have a <br />school to which children can walk. <br />State reimbursement policies can also discourage the proper maintenance of <br />existing schools. A Massachusetts report found that state funding sources for school <br />maintenance and repair have the "iu~urteritional side effect of rewarding schools that <br />allow their facilities to deteriorate with new school buildings." In many areas; claims for <br />building maintenance funds must compete with demands on operating budgets. Faced <br />with the choice of hiring several new teachers or fixing a leafing roof, a school district is <br />more likely to hire the teachers, even though deferred maintenance of the school building <br />may generate a huge tab later on. Criven reimbursement rates, it may seem more cost <br />effective for a town to build a new school -- , or undertake a maj or renovation in a few <br />years -- than to properly care for a school building over the long term. <br />18 <br />