In this March 23, 2010 photo, motorists travel northbound on the South Bay Expressway Toll Road 125 in San Diego. For cities and states buried under mountains of debt, it has become a tantalizing proposition: invite private financial institutions to put up the money to fix aging schools, dilapidated rail lines and beat-up roads. This road project in the San Diego area in 2007 failed after it did not produce the rates of return the private developer expected. (AP Photo/U-T San Diego, Nelvin C. Cepeda) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES, ONLINE OUT, NO ARCHIVING, SAN DIEGO COUNTY OUT, TV OUT, MAGS OUT, FOREIGN OUT, TABLOIDS OUT, WIDE WORLD OUT, COMMERCIAL INTERNET USE OUT

This Thursday, July 5, 2012 photo shows the exterior of the 88 year-old Charles E. Gorton High School in Yonkers, N.Y. The Yonkers school district is looking for investors to pay for a $1.7 billion overhaul of dozens of schools, including Gorton, built in 1924 and 43% over-enrolled, according to school district officials. To replace the building would cost $128 million and to overhaul it with repairs would cost $428 million, according to John Carr, who heads up the Yonkers Public Schools Facilities division. Across the country, innovative deals are now being discussed that would put essential pieces of public infrastructure in the hands of global investment firms, the latest effort to cope with a lingering fiscal crisis that has left some communities unable to pay for their needs. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

In this Thursday, July 5, 2012 photo, a student training for the school's football program works out beneath a ripped basketball net inside one of the gymnasiums at the 88-year-old Charles E. Gorton High School in Yonkers, N.Y. The school district is looking for investors to pay for a $1.7 billion overhaul of dozens of schools like this one, which is 43% over-enrolled and needs millions of dollars of renovations. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

In this July 5, 2012 photo, Amisha Patel, director of Grassroots Collaborative, a community-labor coalition, stands outside of Emmet Elementary School on Chicago's West Side. For cities and states buried under mountains of debt, it has become a tantalizing proposition: invite private financial institutions to put up the money to fix aging schools, dilapidated rail lines and beat-up roads. Patel is among skeptics who worry that projects under the Chicago Infrastructure Trust could end up costing taxpayers more, and could skip over poorer neighborhoods where private firms may see less profit. (AP Photo/M. Spencer Green)

In this March 23, 2010 photo, motorists travel northbound on the South Bay Expressway Toll Road 125 in San Diego. For cities and states buried under mountains of debt, it has become a tantalizing proposition: invite private financial institutions to put up the money to fix aging schools, dilapidated rail lines and beat-up roads. This road project in the San Diego area in 2007 failed after it did not produce the rates of return the private developer expected. (AP Photo/U-T San Diego, Nelvin C. Cepeda) MANDATORY CREDIT, NO SALES, ONLINE OUT, NO ARCHIVING, SAN DIEGO COUNTY OUT, TV OUT, MAGS OUT, FOREIGN OUT, TABLOIDS OUT, WIDE WORLD OUT, COMMERCIAL INTERNET USE OUT

In this Thursday, July 5, 2012 photo, John Carr, left, executive director of facilities at the Yonkers School District, meets with night custodian Robert Watkins outside the 88-year-old Charles E. Gorton High School in Yonkers, N.Y. The school district is looking for investors to pay for a $1.7 billion overhaul of dozens of schools including this one. Decorative pieces of the building's structure were falling off and endangering students, so the school district replaced these areas with simple aluminum pieces for safety reasons. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

In this July 5, 2012 photo, head night custodian Robert Watkins, left, and John Carr, executive director of Yonkers Public Schools Facilities, check beneath a radiator where plaster has crumbled away from the brick at the 88-year-old Charles E. Gorton High School in Yonkers, N.Y. The Yonkers school district is looking for investors to pay for a $1.7 billion overhaul of dozens of schools, including this one, which is over-enrolled by 43%. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

In this Thursday, July 5, 2012 photo, plaster crumbles from a wall in a classroom at the 88-year-old Charles E. Gorton High School in Yonkers, N.Y. The Yonkers school district is looking for investors to pay for a $1.7 billion overhaul of dozens of schools like this one. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

In this Thursday, July 5, 2012 photo, John Carr, who heads up the facilities department of the Yonkers Public Schools, points out a decades-old window air conditioner installed in one of the classrooms at the 88-year-old Charles E. Gorton High School in Yonkers, N.Y. The school district is looking for investors to pay for a $1.7 billion overhaul of dozens of schools like this one. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)