CARTERVILLE - Gov. Rod Blagojevich will tour Carterville High School at 3 p.m. Friday, his scheduler said this morning.

The governor was invited to tour the high school by Carterville superintendent Tim Bleyer and Williamson County commissioner Brent Gentry while he's in Southern Illinois for the Du Quoin State Fair. They hoped he would visit as early as Wednesday to illustrate the need for a school construction capital bill.

Blagojevich spent the early part of Wednesday morning at John A. Logan College in Carterville for a Southern Business Journal community leaders' breakfast. He was asked to tour the school after that event, but the governor had previously scheduled events in Bloomington and Chicago.

Bleyer said the governor and all lawmakers would benefit from a tour of the dilapidated high school, which was built in 1924.

"I think it is beneficial for any governor or legislator to see what our students and staff are dealing with," Bleyer said. "Going through the detail we went through the first week of school would have been enough to convince Republicans or Democrats to support a new construction bill."

Gentry talked with the governor's campaign manager, Lon Monk, at the Du Quoin Fair about touring the Carterville High School and Carterville Intermediate School.

The governor said Wednesday he is well aware of the problems Carterville and many other construction-starved school districts are experiencing. However, he said the issue should be brought up with the Republicans, who would not extend the necessary votes to bond the capital bill projects during the spring legislative session.

He said GOP lawmakers are using the question of how to finance the capital bill as a political "smoke screen" during an election year.

"Newly generated revenue alone would pay for bond school construction," Blagojevich said. "They are just making excuses."

Bleyer said he was disappointed by the lack of bipartisan effort to push through the school construction bill, which has remained stagnant after an inability to get Republican support.

"I think the governor has been very plain as to where he stands," Bleyer said. "We can't get leadership to get Republicans and Democrats to work together to do what's best for the state and what's best for the kids."

Read editor James Bennett's blog on the governor and Carterville High School on The Southern's Web site. Go to http://www.thesouthern.com/bennettsblog.