WINCHESTER — When teachers crank up the computer lab's air conditioning at Central Elementary School, someone must plop a bucket in the hallway to catch the condensation water that starts falling from the gaping hole in the ceiling.

At nearby Fannie Bush Elementary School, dozens of desks are pushed together in classrooms nearly 20 percent smaller than recommended. The 275 students share one set of boys and girls bathrooms. Some classes are held out back in rotting, wind-rattled trailers.

Built more than half a century ago, Central and Fannie Bush are two of 18 Kentucky schools currently classified as Category 5 by the state Education Department.

On a 1-to-5 scale, they are the oldest and most decrepit of the state's roughly 1,200 school buildings. All are at least 40 years old. Some date back to the 1920s, with creaky wood floors, leaky roofs, inadequate coal-fired heat and antiquated plumbing. Few have classrooms of sufficient size or that are wired for modern teaching standards.

The schools briefly were in the news in June as the legislature debated allowing slot machines at racetracks. House Speaker Greg Stumbo said his slots bill would generate $850 million to replace all schools in Category 5 — Stumbo called them "awful" — and some of the nearly 200 schools in Category 4 that are barely any better.

But the slots bill died, and the legislature adjourned until January.

Meanwhile, thousands of children started classes this fall at crumbling, cramped schools. This comes 20 years after the state Supreme Court ruled in a landmark school-funding decision that "students must be given equal educational opportunities, regardless of economic status or place of residence."

Most Kentucky schools are in categories 1, 2 or 3, which means they're in excellent, good or average shape. They were built in the last 30 years or had major renovations.

In prosperous Fayette County, for example, three-fourths of schools are in categories 1 and 2. But poor and rural Robertson County has a single school to hold all grades. It was built shortly after World War I, and it's a Category 5 with a laundry list of problems that complicate daily life for students.

"We've tried to add on where we could and do repairs. But at some point, there's not a lot more you can do for an 80-year-old building other than keep repainting it," said Jeremy McCloud, principal of Robertson County's Deming School.

Finding the money

State and local school officials and lawmakers say they're trying to address the problem of aging schools as best they can given the sour economy.

Kentucky has seen progress in replacing or renovating Category 5 schools, although that's small consolation to a child now enrolled in one, said Mark Ryles, facilities management director at the state Education Department.

The number of such schools has dropped by nearly half since 2003, when the legislature established the Urgent Needs Trust Fund. In three rounds of funding, ending in 2006, lawmakers approved $275 million in bonding authority to address many of the worst schools in more than 50 school districts, according to the department.

However, lawmakers say they're unable to replenish the fund because there is no more money or bonding capacity. House Democrats unsuccessfully sponsored a bill last winter to appropriate tens of millions of dollars for Category 5 schools in a few specific counties.

Inaction aggravates the problem, said Rep. Tommy Thompson, D-Owensboro, who chairs the House budget subcommittee for education.

Every year, Category 4 schools grow older and more decrepit, Thompson said. The state uses architectural surveys to classify the schools, but many lawmakers suspect they have Category 4 schools in their districts that should be dropped one rank and replaced, he said.

"We all agree that we really need to revisit this," Thompson said. "It's critical that we give our children the best environment in which to learn. Unfortunately, we sometimes fail to do that."

Stumbo, the Democratic House speaker from Prestonsburg, said he still hopes for revenue from slot machines, which the Republican-led Senate is blocking.

"I still think the best way to fund Category 5 schools is through expanded gaming," Stumbo said. "When the dynamics change in the Senate — and I'm convinced they'll change — that bill will pass."

Local obstacles

Part of the problem in addressing Category 5 schools lies in the state asking for more than local school officials say they can give.

The state Education Department spends about $600 million a year on school construction through several funding streams, not all of which take into account a school district's wealth or poverty, Ryles said.

School districts are expected to bring money to the table for their projects, which is why the legislature should require participating districts to up the minimum property tax that funds school construction, Ryles said.

At present, he said, the majority of districts levy a 5-cent tax on every $100 in assessed property value to fund school facilities. Other districts get 10 to 15 cents and, therefore, can afford to build more. The state Education Department wants the minimum tax rate set at 10 cents.

However, school officials in poor districts say it's next to impossible to find the local money to go along with state funding.

Robertson County, for instance, was given $5 million from the state's Urgent Needs Trust Fund to replace its school. But a new school could cost $20 million, said principal McCloud. Unable to make up the difference, the county stares at the $5 million sitting in an escrow account in its name.

"We have 2,200 people living here, and we just don't have that kind of tax base," McCloud said.

Also, to cut costs, the state asks districts to consolidate smaller schools. It makes no sense to spend $10 million or more replacing an old school with a dwindling student population when it can be merged with a newer, larger school in the area, Ryles said.

Consolidation causes its own headaches.

Families near small schools get angry when a closing is announced and the district plans to bus their children elsewhere. Some rural school superintendents say it isn't realistic to shutter their Category 5 school and send children elsewhere because the next school is nearly an hour's drive away.

Finally, in the legislature, talk about school construction leads to partisan wrangling over the state's prevailing wage law, which mandates higher pay for workers on major construction projects built with public funds.

Generally, Democrats support the law and Republicans fight for its repeal. Echoing the GOP, 96 percent of school officials in a 2001 Legislative Research Commission survey said the prevailing wage drives up their project costs; only 4 percent said it improves quality.

While policy-makers decide their next step, Fannie Bush Principal Angela Taylor squeezes a 54th year out of her Winchester school. The few closets are converted for other uses, such as a nurse's station. The cafeteria doubles as the gymnasium once tables are removed so children can exercise.

"For us, the biggest issue is space, in that we don't have any," Taylor said. "We do the best we can. We're getting good at that."

State and local taxes extract 3.4% of Kentuckian's disposable income. Only Ohio, at 3.7%, comes in higher. Virginia also comes in at 3.4%.

The others: West Virginia - 2.8%; Missouri - 2.8%; Indiana - 2.8%; Illinois 2.1%; and Tennessee - 0.3%.

Yes - you read that right. It caused us to wonder if the formula was correct but we re-ran the numbers. Tennessee's state and local government extracts less than 1% of personal disposable income from its citizens. This may be one big reason why Tennessee's growth in gross state product has blown KY away for the past decade.

Data worth considering when we're next told that there isn't enough money in Frankfort.

"In the absence of any change in policy, CBO projects that in 2020 total U.S. emissions will be about 7,580 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents; emissions by entities that would be covered under the two cap-and-trade programs would account for about 6,550 million tons, more than 85 percent of total U.S. emissions....total emissions of the covered entities in (2020) would be about 5,830 million tons, 720 million tons (or 11 percent) below the amount anticipated under current law. (That percentage would increase to about 53 percent by 2050.)"

Translation: under the current iteration of the Waxman-Markey bill, CO2 output by the United States would be reduced by 11% of United States "man-made" sources (power plants, industry, cars, trucks, etc).  Sounds like some real progress?

Well, according to the Energy Information Administration (an agency within the federal Department of Energy) world-wide "man-made" emissions are anticipated to be 35.4 BILLION TONS. So - the reduction in U.S. C02 works out to be ... 2% of "man made" worldwide emissions. Hence why opponents of "cap and trade" say that it is meaningless to burden the American economy with the costs associated with the regulatory regime if developing nations (e.g. China & India) are not going to join in.

Then there's this whole issue of carbon contributions from "other" sources (livestock, volcanic activity) that contributes nearly half of all annual contributions. Throw those in there and the U.S. reductions will be less than 1% of worldwide emissions.

The costs, however, the American people will remain the same. Hence why we've said its like paying thousands of dollars over our lifetimes to keep a thimble full of water from being poured into the Ohio River. That's insane.

"When New York Times columnist Tom Friedman called upon "young Americans" to "get a million people on the Washington Mall calling for a price on carbon," another columnist, Mark Steyn, responded: "If you're 29, there has been no global warming for your entire adult life. If you're graduating high school, there has been no global warming since you entered first grade."

Then there is this: a peer reviewed study from the Journal of Geophysical Research. (NOTE: Peer review means that the article had to win approval before publication from a group of scientists that manage content in the journal).

Three Australasian researchers have shown that natural forces are the dominant influence on climate, in a study just published in the highly-regarded Journal of Geophysical Research. According to this study little or none of the late 20th century global warming and cooling can be attributed to human activity.

The research, by Chris de Freitas, a climate scientist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, John McLean (Melbourne) and Bob Carter (James Cook University), finds that the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a key indicator of global atmospheric temperatures seven months later. As an additional influence, intermittent volcanic activity injects cooling aerosols into the atmosphere and produces significant cooling.

*    *     *

Now - does this "settle" the climate debate? Of course not. But it does show that, contrary to the fervent supporters of cap & trade, the debate on the fundamental science supporting the policy (is "climate change" man-made?) isn't settled either.

We should let that debate continue before we strap down the American economy with the cap & trade regime.