CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS : PROPOSITION 155 : $900-Million School Bond Foresees Growth

As elections and ballot propositions come and go--death penalty, environmental protection, crime victims’ rights, physician-assisted suicide--one issue always faces voters: more money for school construction.

Nov. 3 will be no exception. Proposition 155, a $900-million bond issue to build and modernize public schools, leads the list of 13 initiatives facing the California electorate.

The money is needed, school officials say, because elementary and secondary school enrollments continue to climb, though they have been somewhat slowed by the recession.

Statewide enrollment in kindergarten through 12th grade increased 3.5%, or 176,000 students, this fall, the state Department of Finance estimates--less than the 213,000 increase the department was forecasting a year ago.

However, state finance officials still are projecting that California school enrollments will climb from 5.2 million to 7.2 million in the next decade.

In Los Angeles County, enrollment will increase from 1.4 million to 1.9 million--a 36% increase--by 2001, demographers predict.

Riverside County enrollment will come close to doubling--from 231,500 to 429,200--in the next 10 years, according to the forecast. Over the same period, the expected increase will be 81% in San Bernardino County, 52% in San Diego County, 47% in Orange County, 43% in Santa Barbara County and 28% in Ventura County.

To house the new students, the Department of Finance said in a report published last year, $30 billion for school construction will be needed in the next decade.

That is why, although voters approved a $1.9-billion school construction bond measure in June, they now are faced with a $900-million request.

About $650 million would be spent on new construction, the rest on modernization.

In places such as San Francisco, Oakland and the San Fernando Valley, schools that were built more than 30 years ago are badly in need of repair. Roofs are leaking, heating and cooling systems are inadequate, and windows are cracked or broken.

At one elementary school in the San Juan Unified School District, in the suburbs of Sacramento, parents bought air conditioners and computers for their childrens’ classrooms but, Associate Supt. Paul Disario said, “they had to turn one off in order to use the other because there wasn’t enough electricity for both.”

The bond measure is opposed by the Libertarian Party, which argues that school districts should lease vacant office space for classrooms instead of building schools.

However, Duwayne Brooks, who is in charge of facilities planning for the state Department of Education, said office buildings usually are not close to residential neighborhoods, lack playgrounds and seldom meet state earthquake safety standards.

Ted Brown, chairman of the Los Angeles County Libertarian Party, said: “Money keeps getting thrown at the educational Establishment” but much of it is “wasted on bureaucracy and administration and doesn’t go into the classroom.”

However, a Times analysis of state budget documents this year found that 54 cents of each educational dollar is spent on teachers and other direct classroom expenses; 32 cents goes to operate the schools, from maintenance and utilities to buses and cafeterias, and 14 cents is spent on administration, from salaries for local district clerks to the cost of running the state Department of Education.

A final Libertarian argument is that a “choice” system, providing either vouchers or tax credits to parents so they could afford to send their children to private schools, would significantly reduce public school enrollment and the need for new schools.

Brooks disagrees. “The kids are still going to be there,” he said. “Where are private schools going to get the money to provide for them?”

Supporters of the bond measure include Gov. Pete Wilson, the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Taxpayers Assn. and the state Parent-Teacher Assn.

Wilson has indicated, however, that he wants local school districts to provide as much of the financing for new schools as possible, with state funding as a last resort.

The governor has signed a bill placing an initiative on the June, 1994, ballot to allow local voters to approve school bond measures by majority vote, instead of the two-thirds required under Proposition 13.

Wilson also has asked Maureen DiMarco, his top education official, to figure out a better way for the state to act as a safety net for school districts that are not able to finance their own construction. DiMarco said she would have a program ready for the governor to present to the next legislative session.