Two rivals will now lock horns for a £230m Building Schools for the Future (BSF) project in the East Midlands. Derby City Council has pared the contestants down to Vinci Education and Balfour Beatty. The news means expulsion for a third bidder, Galliford Try. Join discussion...

Four high schools to be built across the province, including one in Calgary, will cost taxpayers $40 million less than expected, Alberta's education and infrastructure ministers said Wednesday. The combined price tag for the schools slated for northwest Calgary, Edmonton, Sherwood Park and Spruce Grove came in at $96.7 million. Join discussion...

Hard economic times have prompted public schools to look for or accept private financial support. Education Week reported that private donations are covering $18,000 of the $225,000 annual salary paid to a school superintendent in Indiana. In Boston, public schools worked with corporations, along with pro and collegiate sports teams, to boost school athletic budgets by more than 60 percent over the next three years ($4 million to $6.5 million). Join discussion...

Ealing Building Schools for the Future (BSF) scheme has narrowed their shortlist down to two bidders. Balfour Beatty Education and QED Education Environments have been chosen to go forward to the next stage of the £300m contract. Seventeen existing schools are set to benefit from the scheme along with a new school which is to be built in the north of the borough. Join discussion...

An outspoken Democrat and former Republican governor of Virginia are advocating a public-private approach to paying for costly school renovations and say they already have financial commitments for what would be Virginia’s largest local school modernization program. Join discussion...

The firms are working for three consortia: Bovis Lendlease, Galliford Try and Willmott Dixon, which are competing for Wands-worth Council’s £300 million BSF programme. This is a 10-year deal that involves rebuilding or remodelling all 16 of the borough’s secondary schools and secondary special schools. Join discussion...

The government has spent £170m of a school refurbishment budget on consultants and only a handful of schools out of almost 25,000 have seen any improvements or been newly built, according to the shadow children's secretary Michael Gove. Quoting figures obtained through a Freedom of Information request, Gove said they threw into question the efficiency and cost control of the government's £50bn Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme. Join discussion...

Balfour Beatty has been awarded preferred bidder status on a £450m Building Schools for the Future project in the North West by two councils that have decided to run their programmes in partnership. Blackburn with Darwen Council and Bolton Council will work alongside Balfour Beatty to deliver their capital secondary schools project subject to financial close. Join discussion...

The frustration for everyone with an interest in education – that it has taken two years of the SNP’s minority government to name the 14 secondary schools most in need of new facilities mirrors the difficulty it has faced in finding a mechanism to raise money. In contrast to the original forecast of the Finance Secretary, John Swinney – that the SFT would release up to £150m a year for reinvestment in Scotland’s infrastructure – its role in the school building programme will be in managing the scheme to ensure best value rather than being the engine of funding. The SFT will provide financial and procurement expertise and implement economies of scale across local authorities. Join discussion...

The government seems to be making a strong headway in its attempts to extend the scope of the public-private partnership (PPP) beyond infrastructure projects, with the Planning Commission close to finalising draft agreements for projects in areas such as school education, electricity transmission and urban water supply. Join discussion...