The Ungheni District Council published two assessments on Facebook on 24 July: how much money went, over the last two years, into the gymnasiums of Todirești and Costuleni. The figures are not made up — they can be found in public documents. But, read against the sources, they say something the posts do not: at Costuleni, most of the “district’s investments” are, in fact, money coming from the government and from the Ministry of Education, which the district merely reports.
Costuleni: one leu in ten is the district’s
At the Costuleni gymnasium, the District Council lists a package close to six million lei: thermal insulation of about two million “through the European Village programme”, sanitary facilities and showers of about three million “through the Ministry of Education”, and paving around the institution.
Who pays for each part is visible in the documents. The paving — 531.3 thousand lei — is the only one financed from the district’s own budget, through the “district component”, according to the District Council’s decision of 25 February 2026. The thermal insulation — over 2.4 million lei — comes from the government, through the National Fund for Regional and Local Development, under the “European Village” programme; it covers the main building, the sports hall, the gallery and the festivity hall, benefiting over 300 pupils and 41 staff. The sanitary facilities are part of a national programme of the Ministry of Education — almost 38 million lei for 19 schools, of which 36 million from the state budget and 1.89 million the contribution of local authorities.
In other words, out of the almost six million presented as the district’s “substantial investments” at Costuleni, the District Council’s own share is the paving of about half a million — roughly one leu in ten. The rest is national money and co-financing by the town hall. It is not a problem that the district handles coordination; the problem arises only if state money is presented as the district’s.
Todirești: here the money is the district’s
The contrast is useful, precisely because not everything the district shows is borrowed. At the Todirești gymnasium, the money really does belong to the District Council. From the “district component”, it allocated 783.3 thousand lei for repairing the festivity hall and 140.1 thousand for the institution’s chimney — works the district sums up as “over 1.2 million lei in the last two years”, including a heating system. The figure of “300 children” in the commune appears only in the district’s post; it does not feature in any public statistic.
The difference between the two schools is, in fact, the lesson: the same two million can be “the district’s” or “through the district”, and the reader has the right to know which is which.
Why right now
There is also a calendar reason why the district is drawing up its balance right now. From 1 January 2027, both gymnasiums — among the 46 education institutions under the District Council’s subordination — move to a Territorial Agency for Education, following the “Restart in Education” reform, approved by the Government on 22 July. The segment being moved means 335.5 million lei, that is 72.5% of the district budget. In practice, the district presents its investments in schools in the very months when it is preparing to stop managing them — and it does so a year before the general local elections of autumn 2027.
This does not empty the gesture of meaning. The buildings remain the district’s property even after the transfer, given that they will be handed to the Agency for use, and the obligation for capital repairs stays with the District Council; keeping them in good condition is therefore rational. Todirești (around 300 pupils) and Costuleni (over 300) are, moreover, large and viable schools, in a district that over two decades has lost 19 schools — from 65 to 46 — and almost half its pupils.
A clarification that matters
All the figures above come from decisions to allocate money, not from work-acceptance reports. Allocation is not the same as execution: the money for the festivity hall at Todirești, for instance, was only distributed on 7 May 2026, and a work may still be under way. “Allocated” and “completed” are not the same thing, and the balance-sheets on social media do not always make the distinction.
There remains, then, a simple picture to keep in mind, beyond the two posts: the money now being spent on the schools’ “district component” is exactly the flow that, five months from now, moves to the new agency.