Educational Settlement Finance

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Educational Settlement Finance

July 30, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Giovanni Paolo Panini, An architectural capriccio with figures among Roman ruins

The post-pandemic #WiseCampus transformation requires significant capital to meet the sustainability goals of its leadership.  Campuses are cities-within-cities and are, to a fair degree, financed in a similar fashion.  Tax-free bonds are an effective instrument for school districts, colleges and universities — and the host community in which they are nested — for raising capital for infrastructure projects while also providing investors with, say $10,000 to $100,000, to allocate toward a tax-free dividend income stream that produces a return in the range of 2 to 8 percent annually.

An aging population may be receptive to investment opportunities that protect their retirement savings from taxation.

Once a month, we walk through the prospectuses of one or two bond offerings of school districts, colleges and universities and examine offering specifics regarding infrastructure construction, operations and maintenance.  We pay particular attention to details regarding “continuing operations”. Somehow the education industry has to pay for its green agenda.  See our CALENDAR for the next Finance colloquium; open to everyone.

The interactive map provided by Electronic Municipal Market Access identifies state-by-state listings of tax-free bonds that contribute to the construction and operation of education facilities; some of which involved university-affiliated medical research and healthcare delivery enterprises.

CLICK ON IMAGE FOR INTERACTIVE MAP

 

If you need help cutting through this list please feel free to click in any day at 11 AM Eastern time.  Use the login credentials at the upper right of our hope page.  We collaborate with subject matter experts at Municipal Analytics and UBS.

Issue: [Various]

Category: Administration & Management, Finance, #SmartCampus

Colleagues: Mike Anthony, John Kaczor, Liberty Ziegahn

*We see the pandemic as a driver for a step-reduction in cost in all dimensions of education communities.  We coined the term with a hashtag about two years ago.

*College and university infrastructure projects are classified with public school districts under the rubric “municipal bonds” at the moment.  CLICK HERE for more information.

 


More:

Duke Law Review:  Don’t ‘Screw Joe the Plummer’: The Sausage-Making of Financial Reform

An Expanded Study of School Bond Elections in Michigan

An Expanded Study of School Bond Elections in Michigan

July 30, 2025
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Gallery: School Bond Referenda

As of January 2022, there were a few municipalities in the United States that allowed non-citizens to vote in local elections, but no entire states. These municipalities included:

San Francisco, California: Non-citizens are allowed to vote in school board elections.
Chicago, Illinois: Non-citizens are allowed to vote in school board elections.
Takoma Park, Maryland: Non-citizens are allowed to vote in local elections.

It’s worth noting that these policies may change over time as local governments make decisions regarding voting rights. For the most up-to-date information, it’s best to consult the specific laws and regulations of each municipality or state.

"Election Day, 1944" | Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post

“Election Day, 1944” | Norman Rockwell for the Saturday Evening Post

School bond elections — either at county or district level — are processes through which communities vote to authorize the issuance of bonds to fund various projects and improvements in their local school districts.  The elections determine the quality of educational settlements –new school buildings, renovating existing facilities, upgrading technology, and improving safety measures. The outcomes of these elections directly affect the quality of education and learning environments for students within the county. Successful bond measures can stimulate economic growth by creating jobs and attracting families to the area.

Community involvement and voter turnout are essential in determining the allocation of resources and shaping the quality of life for its citizens.  In recent years, however, voter ambivalence about the education “industry” in general, the rise of home schooling and other cultural factors, complicate choices presented to voters.

Financial Services

Gallery: School Bond Referenda

July 30, 2025
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In terms of total spend, the US elementary and secondary school industry is about twice the size of the higher education industry according to IBISWorld. About $100 billion is in play every year for both (which we cover during our Ædificare colloquia); with higher education spending only half of what elementary and secondary school systems spend on facilities.

Note that some districts are including construction for faculty housing.

Our focus remains on applying global standard to create educational settlements that are safer, simpler, lower-cost and longer-lasting — not on the hurly-burly of local school bond elections.  We recommend consulting the coverage in American School & University for more detailed and more timely information.




“FDSC 4300: The Science and Technology of Beer”

July 29, 2025
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Professor Karl Siebert, who teaches FDSC 4300, The Science and Technology of Beer, demonstrates how to properly pour a beer and discusses the sensory experience of beer appreciation. In a recent study, Siebert identified the key component in a ‘perfect’ head of beer: a barley protein known as Lipid Transport Protein 1 or LPT1.

Fellows Coffee Shop

July 29, 2025
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“I have found that it is the small everyday deeds of ordinary folk

that keep the darkness at bay.”

— J.R. R. Tolkein

 

 

Annual Report and Accounts 2023/24: £1.310 billion

Tolkien, author of “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Hobbit,” completed his studies at the University of Birmingham in 1915. He graduated with first-class honors in English Language and Literature. After graduation, Tolkien went on to serve in World War I before embarking on his distinguished career as a writer and academic.

Old Joe: Campus Romances

Old Joe Clocktower | Fixing Old Joe

Roger Scruton “Why Intellectuals are Mostly Left”


Coffee

How Coffee Loves Us Back

The Perfect Cup of Coffee

Best Coffee Spots Near Campus

Social Experiment: Giving College Students Coffee

Bruin Café

 

Electrical Power Reliability

July 29, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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P(A)

Today at the usual hour we introduce the project which will require harvesting power reliability statistics from any and all educational settlements willing to share their data.  As the links before demonstrate, we have worked in this domain for many years.  Join us with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

Types of Probability Distribution & Representative Calculation

SDC3006_Power_System_Reliability_WG_Minutes_2024-05-20

WG Meeting Agenda August 2024_final


Indiana University Internet Archive: “A Mathematical Theory of Reliability” by Richard E. Barlow and Frank Proschan (1965)

This paper introduced the concept of reliability theory and established a mathematical framework for analyzing system reliability in terms of lumped parameters. It defined important concepts such as coherent systems, minimal cut sets, and minimal path sets, which are still widely used in reliability engineering.

IEEE Recommended Practice for the Design of Reliable Industrial and Commercial Power Systems

“Railroad Sunset” | Edward Hopper

We are tooling up to update the failure rate tables of IEEE 493 Design of Reliable Industrial and Commercial Power Systems; collaborating with project leaders but contributing to an essential part of the data design engineers use for scaling their power system designs.  The project is in its early stages.  We are formulating approaches about how to gather data for assemble a statistically significant data set.

Today at the usual hour we introduce the project which will require harvesting power reliability statistics from any and all educational settlements willing to share their data.  As the links before demonstrate, we have worked in this domain for many years.

Join us with the login credentials at the upper right of our home page.

 

2017 National Electrical Code § 110.5

2028 National Electrical Safety Code

Reliability Analysis for Power to Fire Pumps

Interoperability of Distributed Energy Resources


“On the Mathematical Theory of Risk and Some Problems in Distribution-Free Statistics” by Frank Proschan (1963): This paper introduced the concept of increasing failure rate (IFR) and decreasing failure rate (DFR) distributions, which are crucial in reliability modeling and analysis.

“Reliability Models for Multiple Failures in Redundant Systems” by John F. Meyer (1965): This paper addressed the problem of reliability analysis for redundant systems, which are systems with multiple components designed to provide backup in case of failure.

“Reliability of Systems in Series and in Parallel” by A. T. Bharucha-Reid (1960): This work analyzed the reliability of systems composed of components arranged in series and parallel configurations, which are fundamental building blocks of more complex systems.

“A Stochastic Model for the Reliability of Modular Software Systems” by John E. Gaffney, Jr. and Thomas A. Dueck (1980): This paper introduced one of the earliest models for software reliability, extending the concepts of reliability theory to the field of software engineering.

“Redundancy Techniques for Computing Systems” by John von Neumann (1956): This report by the pioneering computer scientist John von Neumann explored the use of redundancy techniques, such as triple modular redundancy, to improve the reliability of computing systems.

Open for Comment: Types of Reliability Probability Distributions

Acceptable Performance Standard for District Cooling Systems

July 29, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Standards Actions | July 2024

Thermal load on large campus power systems interact with electrical energy systems.  We track ASHRAE 245P described below:

PUBLIC REVIEW DRAFT 

District Cooling

Beauty in a World of Ugliness

July 29, 2025
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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