Our say: Schools' deferred maintenance headache worsens

BACK IN the good old days -- 1997 -- we wrote an editorial fretting about a school maintenance backlog estimated at $70 million.

After eight years, and a concerted effort by County Executive Janet Owens to catch up in this area, that backlog is estimated at $165 million. In other words, it has apparently doubled in eight years, even adjusting for inflation.

You can go to scores of county schools and see what a maintenance backlog looks like - rust, leaky roofs, worn-out carpeting, museum-piece boilers. All this is what you'd expect in a school system in which more than two-thirds of the buildings were put up during the surge...