Prop. 75 Aimed at Easing Space Crunch in Schools

For thousands of students in overcrowded schools up and down the state, class takes place in makeshift spaces--trailers, auditoriums, churches, duplex apartments, even old pizza parlors.

In an elementary school in Lodi, a burgeoning community in San Joaquin County, for example, the band has held practices in a storage room, while other students study in a refurbished bus or in rented houses, using cul-de-sacs as playgrounds. “We have utilized every nook and cranny,” a Lodi school official said.

For other districts facing a space crunch, the solutions have included year-round schedules, double sessions and, as in the case of more than 13,000 students in the Los Angeles Unified School District, traveling many miles from their neighborhoods to attend other campuses.

Such inconveniences are the result of a serious backlog in school construction statewide that is addressed by Proposition 75, an $800-million school bond measure on the June 7 ballot.

It is the first of two $800-million school construction bonds that Gov. George Deukmejian and the Legislature agreed to put before voters this year; the second will appear on the November ballot, bringing the total to $1.6 billion.

“That much has never been placed on the ballot in one year. It’s a recognition of the fact there is a real problem here, and it’s reaching a crisis,” said Mike Vail, a Capistrano Unified School District official who heads the Yes on Proposition 75 campaign.

The state school construction fund, which has been the principal source of school building money since voters approved Proposition 13 in 1978, is nearly empty, Vail said. Meanwhile, school projects costing a total of $900 million are ready for construction but face delays because of the shortage of money.

Enrollments are climbing most dramatically in Riverside and San Bernardino counties, where new housing developments have attracted many families with school-age children, but growth is occurring in a wide range of districts throughout the state.

In the tiny Bonny Doon Union Elementary School District, a one-school district with 225 students in Santa Cruz, for instance, an enrollment spurt of just 40 students has caused hardships. According to Supt. Mike Distefano, the district has handled the overflow by leasing portable classrooms, but they lack the amenities of a regular, permanent room, such as sinks and good ventilation.

On the other end of the spectrum is the mammoth Los Angeles district, which is readying plans for 25 new schools, 37 campus expansions and 31 modernization projects to accommodate more than 40,000 new students expected over the next three years. Those projects will cost close to $600 million.

The state Department of Education projects that an additional $6 billion to $9 billion for school construction is needed by 1993, when enrollment statewide in kindergarten through 12th grades--now at 4.4 million--is estimated to grow by 850,000 pupils. State education officials say that keeping up with that growth would require the building of 10 new classrooms every day for the next five years.

“We need (the bond money) desperately,” said state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig, who supports the measure along with Deukmejian and a host of major state education and taxpayer organizations. “If we don’t get the money, we would have to stop building schools. So it’s crucial that it passes.”

The June bond measure, which requires a majority vote to pass, would pay for modernization, air-conditioning, portable classrooms and incentives for year-round schools, as well as for new construction.

The sole opponent listed on the ballot is Ted Costa, identified as a people’s advocate and assistant to Paul Gann. Writing in a ballot statement, Costa said that Proposition 75 would add too much to the public debt. He also states that schools have received ample money over the last four years, in part due to the state lottery.

Proponents point out, however, that the state lottery law prohibits districts from using lottery profits to build schools. The lottery has generated $1.3 billion for public elementary and secondary schools as of April 29.