Schoolyards left off-road

The State Duma rejected amendments to the Budget Code allowing regions and municipalities to use road funds to improve the areas of schools and kindergartens. The authors of the initiative from the LDPR explained that local authorities do not have enough funds for this – road workers could share the money. United Russia recognized the problem, but did not support the solution method.

The State Duma on Wednesday considered the proposal presented by LDPR deputies bill with amendments to Art. 179.4 of the Budget Code (“Road Funds”). The funds from these funds may be used to repair public roads, courtyards of apartment buildings, and driveways to them. Funding should also be allowed to be used to clean up “access roads and paved areas” near schools and kindergartens, the authors of the initiative believe.

The current school overhaul program in the regions does not allow for landscaping their territories, deputies write in an explanatory note. “The overwhelming number of schools and kindergartens need, in particular, the repair of road surfaces adjacent to the buildings,” parliamentarians complain. “The areas are in a deplorable state and require routine, and in many cases, major repairs. Now repairs to the territory can only be carried out at the expense of municipalities; financing of the work occurs on a residual basis.”

Road funds have been successfully existing for more than ten years, many roads have been repaired, so part of the funds could be used for improvement, deputies believe.

The bill is important for residents of small towns, regional centers, and villages, explained Sergei Leonov, deputy chairman of the LDPR faction, on Wednesday. “Schools and kindergartens there, as a rule, were built 30–40 years ago. Most municipalities only have money to maintain institutions in proper condition,” he said. “The territories are in disrepair.”

Access roads to schools and kindergartens are already financed from road funds, including within the framework of the national project “Safe Quality Roads,” the Duma Committee on Budget and Taxes responded to criticism in its conclusion. This year, Rosavtodor announced plans to repair 800 such roads; this has already been done in Kazan, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and other cities. And asphalt areas on the territory of schools and kindergartens do not belong to public roads and are not elements of their improvement, representatives of the Accounts Chamber indicated in their conclusion on the bill. The auditors also pointed out the lack of a “justification for the feasibility” of the amendments and a “forecast of the economic consequences” of the adoption of the amendments.

The issues identified by the LDPR must be resolved, said deputy Galina Danchikova (United Russia), but this should not be done through the Budget Code and road funds.

“We have the task of improving and bringing regional and municipal roads into standard condition,” she explained.

The construction of school areas in rural schools is financed on a residual basis, Dmitry Kazakov, a history and social studies teacher at a secondary school in the village of Taremskoye, Pavlovsk region, Nizhny Novgorod region, and the chairman of the trade union organization of the Pavlovsk region, confirmed to Kommersant. “Despite federal programs, most educational institutions are in a deplorable state,” the teacher complains. “There is no money in the municipal budget to simply replace windows in schools or provide high-quality heating; as a result, children study on “federal” computers, but in down jackets, because It’s cold in the school building, what a paved area there is.” The expert also notes that many rural schools, which really “stood in the middle of bare land,” were closed due to optimization back in the 2000s, and students were transferred to educational institutions in regional centers. “This has all increased the problem of roads to school – there is no transport, no highway, children often cannot simply get to school, roads in villages are washed away and schoolchildren are forced to miss several weeks before the drought or walk several kilometers in the mud,” says the teacher. .

Ivan Buranov, Polina Yachmennikova