With so many of California’s students and teachers working in rundown facilities that need 
earthquake safety improvements as well as repairs for leaky roofs and broken bathrooms, the statewide $10.4 billion school bond on the November ballot could not comeat a better time.
CTA supports the entire California infrastructure rebuilding package of five propositions placed on the ballot by the Legislature, but it’s Proposition 1D that is a top priority for educators, says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. “Prop. 1D is clearly an investment in our schools, our children and the future of California. With our school buildings in disrepair, we send our students the wrong message. We tell them education is not important. A clean, modern and safe school sends the right message — that education is a high priority.”
The money goes where it’s really needed. Prop. 1D allocates $ 7.3 billion for K12 school renovations, Internet access wiring, and the building of new classrooms and vocational education facilities. It also earmarks more than $3 billion for community colleges and universities.
The bond will make schools serving the state’s 6.3 million K12s tudents safer, relieve overcrowding, modernize facilities and helpfinance projected student growth in California’s higher education system.
With the California state architect estimating that more than 7,000 schools in the state may not be earthquake safe,school safety remains a top priority for bond funds.
Overcrowding is still rampant in many school districts. Students are trying to learn in schools that are crammed with 75 percent more students than they were built to handle. Prop. 1D provides $1.9 billion just to construct new classrooms.
And with community colleges serving more than 2 million students a year, and California’s universities expected to grow by 650,000 students in coming years, room for expansion is critical.
In 2002 and 2004, California voters passed two statewide school bonds totaling $25 billion to build new classrooms and do upgrades.
Dan Vaughn, the CTA Board of Directors liaison to State Council’s Financing Public Education Committee, says the public may not be aware of how great the need is for state and local bond money to upgrade school facilities. Money from two local bonds passed by voters in the Downey Unified School District where he works is about to run out before all overcrowding issues can be addressed, especially at local high schools.
"Prop. 1D will allow school districts around the state to continue the renovations that many started with matching funds from the two recent statewide bonds. It allows schools to really modernize to meet the needs of students in the coming decades.”
The proposition helps local school bond projects, because they often require a state match. For example, it will help build the modernized arts theater, improved sports stadium and new swimming complex to be funded by a $19 million bond on the November ballot in the El Segundo Unified School District.
“It’s tremendously important for schools to support the arts, and that’s one reason why we are counting on help for our bond from Prop. 1D,” says El Segundo Teachers Association President Daphne Moote. “And physical education is so important as well, with the new emphasis on student wellness."
In the Bay Area, teachers are supporting a $450 million local school bond on the November ballot to address issues like better access for students with disabilities and overcrowding at 64 school sites in the San Francisco Unified School District. But the district is also counting on getting millions of dollars from Prop. 1D for projects, says United Educators of San Francisco President Dennis Kelly. “If Prop. 1D does not pass, it will be very hard to find those millions of dollars somewhere else.”
CTA is backing the other four infrastructure measures on the November ballot: Prop. 1A, which will prevent gas taxes from being diverted from transportation projects; Prop. 1B, which will provide $20 billion for highway improvements; Prop. 1C, which will raise $3 billion for emergency shelters for battered women and affordable housingf or seniors and low income families; andProp. 1E, which will provide $4 billion to strengthen river levees.
CTA is part of a broad coalition backing Prop. 1D that includes businesses, parents and watchdog organizations. Supporters include the California State PTA, California Chambe rof Commerce, California School Boards Association, California Federation of Teachers, California Business Roundtable, University of California, California State University, California Community Colleges, and the California Taxpayers Association.
For a complete list of supporters, visit the campaign’s website [www.yeson1D.com].
