PROP. 155 : Investment Strategy

Fewer teachers, deteriorating school buildings and dwindling supplies amid skyrocketing enrollments. This is the cruel reality facing California’s public school children, and it is a situation that is not likely to improve as budget axes continue to fall across the state.

Among the schools in crisis are those of the Los Angeles Unified District, which has slashed $400 million from its $3.9-billion budget.

Hope for our schools depends on secondary funding sources such as bonds. With the passage of Proposition 152 last June, voters made available $1.9 billion in bond money that goes directly to elementary and secondary schools for capital improvements and construction of new facilities. Now, voters should continue this valuable commitment to education by passing Proposition 155. If approved on Nov. 3, the 1992 School Facilities Bond Act will authorize the sale of $900 million in bonds.

According to the state legislative analyst, the bond measure would help ease a $5-billion backlog of requests from school districts across the state for improvements. Treasurer Kathleen Brown, who is responsible for selling California’s bonds on the open market and for monitoring the state’s overall level of bonded indebtedness, has concluded that the measure will not harm the state’s credit-worthiness.

Brown and others are rallying behind 155 because they know that the long-term economic health of our state depends on our children--our most important resource. We must invest in them. Proposition 155 is one way.