Voting on School Measures

On Tuesday California voters will be asked to approve Proposition 1C, which will provide $900 million in investment bonds for California’s 136 public universities and community colleges.

With Proposition 1C, our colleges will make the critically important technological, safety and other improvements to our already existing campuses. Without it, these essential projects will go undone. These projects include seismic upgrading to ensure our campuses can withstand future earthquakes; buying new computer, science and high-tech equipment; and updating classroom science labs and learning centers. It’s important to note that Proposition 1C includes an estimated $151.9 million in funding for Los Angeles County projects. This includes: $25.9 million for UCLA to upgrade several buildings to earthquake standards; $38 million to renovate Cal State Northridge and Cal State L.A.; and $38 million for Compton, East L.A., Harbor, Pierce, Trade Tech, Los Angeles, Southwest and West Los Angeles City Colleges to make overdue and needed campus improvements.

Our public colleges and universities provide important career training and job retraining opportunities for all Californians. Proposition 1C is an investment in these critical institutions and an investment in a strong and healthy California economy.

DIANE E. WATSON

State Senate, D-Los Angeles

* On Tuesday we have a chance to vote on Proposition 1B, a proposal to build and improve elementary and secondary schools in California. A lot of us here in the high desert are retirees. Of course we don’t want to pay for another generation’s education, right? In my opinion, wrong, very, very wrong.

We are leaving a legacy of major unsolved problems; huge debts all over the country; hordes of permanently unemployed citizens. If these problems are ever to be solved, great skills and exceptional brainpower will have to be exercised.

We’re telling our kids that they will have to get college degrees in order to make it in the years ahead. In the meantime, we’ve managed to make that goal much more difficult. Tuition costs and other expenses have increased dramatically, while part-time jobs are less available. In the meantime, we should send our kids to old, overcrowded, undermanned, ill-equipped preparatory schools?

Bequeath massive problems and deteriorating preparation of our upcoming generation and we will all be losers--guaranteed.

The proposed billion-dollar bond issue will cost nearly $2 billion, including interest. This comes to something like $80 for every Californian. Spread over 20 years, that’s $4 per year, 33 cents per month! Vote yes on Proposition 1B. It is important.

EMERSON SCHNEIDER

Victorville

* On May 20 The Times ran an editorial describing several top candidates for superintendent of public instruction. I hope voters throughout California understand how vitally important this election is. Max Rafferty, Wilson Riles, Bill Honig. Whatever your perspective on these past superintendents there is no denying they each left an indelible imprint on a decade of public education in our state. An effective superintendent of public instruction will help determine whether our public schools reshape themselves as comprehensively and rapidly as is absolutely necessary.

We need a superintendent who has a sophisticated understanding of the task before us. A superintendent who is focused on the child in the classroom, who understands the reality of that child’s life, and of exactly what it takes to work with local schools, school boards, parents and community members to effect productive systematic change.

Each individual voter needs to decide how he or she will vote in this election. As an individual voter I will be casting my vote for Maureen DiMarco, who I passionately believe is best qualified to get the necessary job done as California’s next superintendent of public instruction.

SHERRY LOOFBOURROW

Corona del Mar

Loofbourrow is a member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of Education and 1994 President of the California School Boards Assn.