A Vote for Tomorrow’s Students : City of Los Angeles’ Proposition C deserves support Tuesday

The 112,000 students enrolled in the Los Angeles Community College District are often asked to attend classes in antiquated, unbearably hot and crowded buildings that do not meet fire, earthquake or other safety codes. Disabled students are often barred from classes because the buildings are inaccessible to them.

Proposition C, a $200-million bond measure on the Tuesday ballot, would finance critical health and safety improvements, essential renovations and desperately needed maintenance throughout the district. A yes vote is certainly in order.

Proposition C will not cost much during the 30-year life of the bond. The owner of an average home can expect to pay about $2.35 in additional property taxes per year. That small amount is not too much to ask to help thousands of local students whose best hope of a productive life starts at a community college.

Every campus will benefit. At the venerable Los Angeles City College campus, the bond measure would pay to renovate buildings that are more than 50 years old, improve old heating and air-conditioning systems and expand parking.

Similar improvements and technical upgrades to teach computer skills and other work skills needed to meet the demands of the current market would be financed at East Los Angeles College, Harbor College and Trade Technical College.

The bond measure would allow campuses to be completed at Southwest College, Mission College and West Los Angeles College.

At Valley College and Pierce College, the new funding would pay for the construction of a Health Sciences Building that is needed to teach nursing--another skill that is in high demand in the local job market. The measure would also finance major renovations, expansions and improvements to classroom facilities, roofs, heating and air-conditioning systems and safety lighting.

These local colleges cannot depend on shrinking state revenues to cover the competing needs of California’s 107 community college campuses. Lottery money, which is also dwindling, cannot be spent legally on construction, renovation or the other projects that will receive financing from this bond measure.

Proposition C requires a two-thirds vote for approval. This bond measure is an investment in the education of local residents, and thus is a worthy investment in the economic and social future of the city itself.