Schools authority must be funded to produce results Wednesday, August 08, 2007 • The Express-Times Editorial New P'burg high school In Trenton, the transformation of the much-maligned Schools Construction Corp. into the new-and-improved Schools Development Authority is complete, giving some hope the state will find a way to finish the process of replacing crumbling school buildings in poorer districts. Yet for Phillipsburg, which has been waiting for years for state money to build a new high school, the message behind the switch from the SCC to the SDA is LOL. Lots of luck to the notion that the high school will ever be able to ditch the trailer park that provides much of the school's classroom space. Laughing out loud at the prospect of erecting an $88 million school on the tract along Belvidere Road that was purchased, excavated and prepped for a driveway and athletic fields. It's going to take more than a name change to tackle the court mandate to rebuild schools in urban districts. Granted, Gov. Jon Corzine's signature creating the SDA this week is a step in that direction. The SCC went through $6 million with just 90 completed projects to show for it, turning a mandate for quick planning and construction into waste and mismanagement. Hundreds of projects, including Phillipsburg's, have been left in the lurch. The SDA should benefit from oversight by the state inspector general but Corzine and the Legislature haven't addressed the issue of new borrowing. That most likely will be deferred until after the November elections. Officials in the 31 affected districts are backing a plan to raise $3.25 billion via bonding and that figure will have to be tacked onto new authorizations of money for open space acquisition and transportation projects. It's a tall order but Phillipsburg and the other districts have pressing infrastructure needs. This education funding must be found. © 2007 The Express-Times. Used with permissin.