Proposition 223 Balloting

* Proposition 223, the so-called Education Efficiency Initiative, may be efficient for Los Angeles’ teachers union, which sponsored it, but it is a disaster for our local schools.

This Trojan horse promises to put more money in the classroom by capping administrative spending at 5% and spending the “savings” on things like books, computers and teachers.

What it delivers is something quite different.

In reality, the measure redefines “administrators” and employs a spending-limit formula that almost guarantees failure for small- to mid-size school districts. Under the initiative, the mechanic who repairs the brakes on our school bus is an administrator whose salary must be covered out of that 5%. Failure to stay below the cap--by even one dollar--would result in fines of $4,000 to $7,000 per classroom. There is not a local school in Ventura County that could maintain current levels of instructional quality after being hit with that kind of financial penalty.

Because Proposition 98, passed by voters in 1990, mandated that education spending cannot be reduced, these fines must be redistributed to those school districts favored by Proposition 223’s arbitrary definitions and formulas--primarily large urban school districts like Los Angeles Unified! These districts have economies of scale to shave percentage points off their administrative budgets and meet the spending limits with relatively simple bookkeeping changes. Smaller districts do not.

I urge you to vote no on June 2.

KAYSEE ROWLETT

Ventura