Revised figures from a state agency regarding infrastructure state that Bedford County schools have a need of $78.9 million, nearly half the amount reported earlier this week.

The Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations (TACIR) corrected the numbers Thursday after inquiries from the T-G revealed that the state agency had released data that was in error.

On Monday, TACIR issued a press release directing reporters to a new study of infrastructure needs in each Tennessee county, which ranked Bedford County number one in school building needs per student.

But the new figures only bring the county down to a number two ranking for building needs per student, at $11,204. The previous report put the figure at $17,609 per student.

The first report stated that schools in the county need $159.9 million in new infrastructure -- which had School Superintendent Ed Gray wondering earlier this week where TACIR got its figures.

The report claimed that statewide, the cost of bringing all schools and their individual components up to good condition is $1,374 per student.

Also, the new revised report claimed that Bedford County officials reported the cost of bringing all schools including their individual components up to good condition at $43 million for the system, instead of $124 million, as stated Monday by TACIR.

"The statewide cost of bringing all schools and their individual components up to good condition is $1,374 per student compared with $6,106 per student in Bedford County," the new report states.

The previous report, based on the faulty data, stated the cost per student in Bedford County at $17,609.

The revised report also puts infrastructure needs totaling $210.8 million for Bedford County. The previous figure reported by TACIR on Monday was $291.8 million.

"They [Bedford County officials] have identified $34.6 million of $166.3 million [20.8 percent] to be available to meet needs for which funding information was reported," it states.

Another revised figure stated that Bedford County's reported infrastructure needs increased by $18 million (10 percent) since last year's report, instead of increasing by $99 million (51.7 percent), as TACIR reported Monday.

TACIR also reported that statewide, local school officials say that 81.5 percent of all school systems have sufficient space to house the teachers and classrooms required by the smaller class-size standards first imposed by the Education Improvement Act (EIA) in the fall of 2001.

TACIR estimates the cost of the remaining classrooms needed to house these teachers at almost $70 million statewide, which is a huge drop -- about 86 percent, or $410 million -- from the cost estimate in TACIR's last report.

The new report claimed that Bedford County officials reported that their schools do have sufficient space to house the teachers and classrooms required by the smaller class-size standards of EIA.

The full report can be found on TACIR's web site at www.state.tn.us/tacir/infrastructure.htm