American School Board Journal Item
American School Board Journal Item
American School Board Journal, reported on Eddie Tech™ and the backing of Eddie Tech's effort by the National School Boards Association, the American Association of School Administrators, and the National Education Association. (Full Article)
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Eddie Tech helps districts access construction funds
In February’s issue of ASBJ, our news analysis looked at how school districts are struggling to access federal money to repair and replace crumbling facilities. Now three organizations -- NSBA, the American Association of School Administrators, and the National Education Association -- have joined forces to support the work of the National Education Technology Funding Corp.
The corporation, also known as Eddie Tech, works with districts across the nation to assemble bond portfolios that can be sold into the national capital markets. The School Investment Pooled-Securities (SIPS) Program will package bonds into pooled offerings, which will reduce financing costs and simply the process for school districts.
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act created and expanded Qualified School Construction Bonds (QSCBs) and Qualified Zone Academy Bonds (QZABs). School districts were expected to receive a significant financial subsidy because the U.S. Treasury can now pay “interest” to investors in the form of annual tax credits. However, because no mature and established market exists yet for these bonds, many districts are having to pay lenders an additional premium of as much as 3 percent more per year, deeply cutting into the potential savings.
Brett Mandel, Eddie Tech’s executive director, said the SIPS program will “offer efficient ‘pre-packaged’ issuance mechanisms, reduced transaction costs, and more-efficient pricing for school districts.”
“While we were very pleased to see the dramatic expansion of the tax-credit-bond programs, we were disappointed to hear that many school districts have not been able to take full advantage of cost savings,” said Anne Bryant, NSBA’s executive director. “We fully support Eddie Tech’s efforts and believe they will reduce borrowing costs and help our school boards meet their ongoing challenge to invest in schools.”
For more information, visit www.eddietech.org.