Modular Building Institute Responds to President Clinton's State of the Union Address

Charlottesville, Va. (January 20, 1999) - With an effervescence founded on economic prosperity, President Clinton last night outlined his vision of the coming year. As in past years, a significant component of this vision is the education of America. With "more children, from more diverse backgrounds, in our public schools than any time in our history," the President briefly outlined an Education Accountability Act. If enacted, continued federal assistance of public school districts will require compliance with five guiding principles: the end of social promotion; targeting the worst performing schools; responsibility for teacher quality; further empowerment of parents; and the adoption and implementation of "sensible discipline policies."

The proposed Education Accountability Act signals true commitment of the current administration to the advancement of accessible quality education throughout America. This is a goal the Modular Building Institute ("MBI") strives to attain daily.

After outlining five pillars of the Education Accountability Act, the President suggested "we do one more thing for our children. Today, too many schools are so old they're falling apart, or so overcrowded students are learning in trailers."

Member organizations of the MBI are proud to have provided hundreds of thousands of clean, comfortable relocatable classrooms across America. These "temporary" learning environments are factory built in accordance with all federal, state and local building codes and offer every school in America the chance to enjoy the benefits of speed of installation and ease of relocation within strict budgetary guidelines. While many may decry the unsightly "trailers", these code compliant buildings have long been the preferred choice in aging, overcrowded, growing, budget constrained school districts.

California has long embraced the benefits of relocatable classrooms. By law, in order for a school district to retain an annual state contribution, at least 30% of facilities added each year must be relocatable. The 30% law coupled with recent class size reduction laws in lower secondary grades has prompted significant industry capacity expansion in California. Florida and a number of other states are poised to follow suit.

The manufacturers, dealers and suppliers of factory built commercial buildings including temporary and permanent education facilities represent an annual $7.5 billion industry. Relocatable classrooms were first introduced in the United States in the mid-1940s as single trailers - so called because they are transported to site on integral tires and axles. Technical advancements soon permitted the individual trailers to be joined to form buildings of nearly any size and shape. Today, the old trailer manufacturers are building multi-story schools with concrete floors, brick exteriors and complete plumbing, electric and heating and air conditioning all installed in the factory. The individual modular units, still referred to by many as trailers, are transported over our nations highways and installed on permanent foundations in accordance with local codes.

Relocatable classrooms are built in a factory with a wide variety of materials selected by the customer. Many relocatable classrooms today have all the attributes of a site built classroom and one big advantage. If demographics shift or the need for a relocatable classroom at one location disappears, the relocatable classroom can be easily moved to a location with a critical space need.

Today, there are more than two hundred fifty thousand relocatable classrooms in use in the United States. Relocatable classrooms are in use in every state and in every county across America; and the demand is escalating.

MBI member organizations are proud of their contribution to the education of America and pledge continued support. Our member organizations will provide clean, comfortable, relocatable learning environments in a timely fashion just as long as there are children in America's schools.

The Modular Building Institute is an international trade association representing manufacturers, dealers and suppliers of factory built buildings for the commercial marketplace.