WRAL has published a series of articles covering a growing issue in Wake County Public School System (WCPSS): a $200 million backlog in HVAC maintenance created by the district’s spending priorities.
This week the Wake County Board of Education met to receive an update on the ongoing maintenance backlog. WRAL reported that the impacts of the maintenance backlog include:
- Early dismissal 46 times in the previous school year due to extreme temperatures
- More than 60 schools either being closed or dismissed early due to extreme temperatures since 2023
But there’s more to the story than WRAL has reported so far.
On X, Rep. Erin Paré shared:
“Last year I reviewed how much money Wake County Schools received in ESSER III funding (federal COVID money) for allowable uses including improved air systems. Instead of spending the money on the maintenance backlog and improving our school’s air systems, this is how that $172.8 million (after what was required to be spent on learning loss) was spent.“
Despite the federal government sending $172.8 million to WCPSS that could be used to address the maintenance backlog, a grand total of $0 went to HVAC maintenance. You read that right, they spent nothing on this critical need.
This mismanagement of designated funds by progressives running Wake County is all too reminiscent of the way tax-and-spend liberals drove North Carolina’s budget over a cliff in the late 2000’s, with budget shortfalls and poor fiscal management that led to layoffs, furloughs and salary freezes.
Fortunately the 2010s in North Carolina saw a return of fiscally responsible leadership at the North Carolina General Assembly. That conservative leadership brought with it lower taxes and controlled spending that focused on the real needs of the state, rather than the wasteful spending for special interests the liberal leadership of the 2000s prioritized.
