At Last, a Yes for Schools

Voters surely weren’t lying when they told pollsters that education would be one of the most important issues in this election.

Certainly the state’s embarrassingly low reading scores, crumbling buildings and overcrowded classrooms are old news to most Californians. Voters had been consistently stingy when it came to fixing the schools’ many problems. In Orange County, they had rejected general obligation school bonds seven straight times.

Until Tuesday. This time, voters in six of eight Los Angeles-area school districts, including the Buena Park district in Orange County, decided they were finally willing to put money, often big money, behind their call for better schools.

Perhaps the most welcome sign of renewed interest in public education was voter passage of the bond measure to refurbish dilapidated campuses in Buena Park. The $13.8-million bond issue got nearly 75% approval--well more than the two-thirds needed. The last time Orange County voters decided to open their wallets for a public school construction bond was 1975.

In Los Angeles County, voters approved new school bonds in five districts: Antelope Valley, Inglewood, Lawndale, Santa Monica-Malibu and Torrance. Together these measures will generate $250 million to repair schools or build new ones.

The popularity of Proposition 1A on the statewide ballot helped these local measures. The biggest chunk of that $9.2 billion in bonds will fund new school construction to relieve overcrowding, repair schools and wire classrooms and libraries for computers. The measure gives preference to districts that can provide local matching funds. Statewide, 20 of 36 local school bonds on Tuesday’s ballot rode Proposition 1A’s coattails to victory.

After so many years of making do with deteriorating facilities, local school officials are rejoicing at passage of these bond measures. But now comes the hard part: It’s unlikely there will be enough money to fix everything. Los Angeles school leaders recently learned that lesson; even the $2.4 billion that city voters approved in passing Proposition BB in April 1997 will not repair all the leaking toilets, replace all the fallen ceiling tiles and build enough classrooms for the district’s students. So if local leaders hope for more help from the electorate one day, there must be scrupulous spending and accounting in using the windfall generated by this week’s voting.