Oregon Public Broadcasting

This November, Washington voters will be asked to approve a half-billion-dollar "green-schools" bond measure. But is making schools more energy efficient a good investment coming out of the recession? Austin Jenkins reports.

This is the sound of 1,700 high school students moving between classes. 

Too bad no one's figured out how to harness this energy to light or heat a school building. Barring that breakthrough, school districts have to look for ways to save energy.

Take the Olympia district in Washington's capital city. Sandy Scott is head custodian at Olympia High. She leads me into the bowels of the building.

Sandy Scott: "This is the old boiler. And the new boiler I understand is going to take up half the space and be a whole lot more efficient." 

Over the summer this behemoth will be replaced. The district got a grant that will cover the $80,000 cost. The new boiler is expected to knock $4,000 a year off the school's natural gas bill.

Peter Rex is a spokesman for Olympia schools. He says several years of energy upgrades district-wide are paying major dividends. 

Peter Rex: "This year we've estimated utility savings of over $300,000 so that's significant, that's worth several teachers."

But there's never enough grant money for all the energy upgrades schools want to do.

Now comes Referendum 52 in Washington. Majority Democrats in the legislature put it on the fall ballot. It would allow the state to bond $500 million to pay for energy efficiency upgrades in schools across the state.

But is this the right investment at the right time? That probably depends on how it's sold to voters.

State Representative Hans Dunshee sponsored the measure in the legislature. His goal was to combine going green with two other critical issues.

Hans Dunshee: "There's been a battle over healthy schools, you know, issues of mold, air contamination, asbestos and then we lost a 100,000 jobs in the last year. Then the issues of energy that are coming at us, I thought how could I put that all together in a package."

That package approach may appeal to Washington voters. A recent survey of Northwest residents reveals that "greening up" schools is not a top priority compared to class size and teacher pay.

But Pollster Adam Davis says when asked specifically about maintaining schools, nearly 90 percent of people polled support energy upgrades. 

Adam Davis: "We had a majority of people saying yes, that is something that I'm willing to pay more taxpayer money for. We asked them why and they said primarily because it's going to save us money in the long-run and it's a way to create jobs."

Funny he should say that.

Even though one of the intents of the measure is to create jobs, Washington voters won't see any mention of that on the ballot this fall. That's because opponents of R-52 convinced a judge to strip out any reference to jobs in the description of the measure on the ballot. 

Our survey was a collaboration of the Northwest Health Foundation, the polling firm Davis, Hibbitts and Midghall and Northwest public radio stations including OPB.

On the Web:

Referendum Bill No. 52

NW OpinionScape survey results (.pdf)