IAC tells Appropriations Committee Maryland schools face widening funding shortfall as construction costs surge

During a briefing to the Appropriations Committee, Alex Donahue, executive director of the Interagency Commission on School Construction (IAC), said Maryland’s school facilities are deteriorating faster than current funding can repair them and that rising construction costs have erased purchasing power.

"A typical elementary school now cost more than $40,000,000 to build," Donahue said, and he reported the IAC’s statewide facility-condition index averages about 52 percent — a level at which problems multiply and maintenance costs accelerate. Donahue told lawmakers replacing the entire inventory of roughly 1,400 school facilities today would be worth about $73,000,000,000.

The IAC identified five buckets of need: ongoing condition and maintenance work; alterations to meet modern educational programs; new seats to serve local enrollment growth; additional classrooms for pre‑K expansion tied to the state's Blueprint; and the long‑term cost of decarbonizing school buildings to meet state climate goals. Donahue said construction costs in Maryland rose roughly 199 percent since 2003, with school construction increasing faster than general inflation, producing a…