A tale of two ledes

Sarah Carr writes in today's Times-Picayune:

Two independent groups on Wednesday raised red flags about the long-term financing behind the city's ambitious and unprecedented school construction plan.

At a meeting of the state school board, the groups also probed school officials for more details about the costs of individual projects. Representatives of Tulane University's Cowen Institute and the Bureau of Governmental Research argued that if money is not found for later phases of the plan -- a likely scenario, they say -- it would exacerbate inequities in children's access to quality school programs and buildings. Specifically, they said, it would lead to a situation where some students attend school in state-of-the-art buildings while others remain indefinitely in decrepit, outdated buildings.

"We probably will not be able to fund the final phases of this plan, " said Tara O'Neill, policy analyst with Tulane University's Cowen Institute. She said that means the plan "will lead to greater disparity between facilities."

The six-phase school construction and renovation plan will cost about $2 billion. New Orleans officials have at least $685 million in financing available for the first phase. That leaves up to $1.3 billion unfinanced, although school officials have said they will likely be able to pull together at least another couple hundred million dollars for future phases.

Wow. Sounds like some people have serious concerns about the "nuts and bolts" of the School Facilities Master Plan.

Which is weird because yesterday, on the Gambit Blog, David Winkler-Schmit wrote this:

The problem isn’t so much the nuts and bolts, but the process behind it. Critics of the School Facilities Master Plan (SFMP) say that while they have specific worries regarding the current plan, their larger concern is the lack of communication from the Orleans Parish School Board and the state’s Recovery School District.

Of course, this isn't an either-or scenario. People can be critical of both the plan and the confusing and closed process by which it is being sold. But the first line of David's post implies that no one is really critical of the plan itself which doesn't appear to be the case.