Builders had a brief period of being able to get public school construction and renovation work after the housing sector plunged, but that has begun to dry up because of constraints on local budgets.

School construction totaled $16.4 billion in 2009, helped partly by federal stimulus funds, but it was down to $12.2 billion last year – and a bigger chunk of that was going for renovations than used to be the case.

One bright spot is charter schools – run by private organizations but collecting money from school districts based on how many pupils the charters have. Some contractors also are looking to public-private partnerships for buildings such as dormitories. At one at Montclair State University in New Jersey, the school provides the residents and the builder provides the facility and collects all the income.

From the article:

During the worst phase of the downturn in nonresidential construction activity, many contractors shifted their priorities from the private market to institutional jobs, including schools and higher education-related projects. ...