Win a Few, Lose a Few : Today’s Voters Are More Generous--Sometimes

Rancho Santa Margarita deserves a welcome as Orange County’s newest city, the 33rd in the county. Voters’ approval of incorporation this month was not a big surprise. Attempts to transform county-governed communities into cities with their own self-rule seldom stir much opposition. But referendums on school bonds traditionally have been another story.

Orange County long was known as an automatic “no” for school bonds. However, in the past two years that has changed, as voters can see that their communities have too few schools for too many students. On the same day as the Rancho Santa Margarita decision, voters wisely approved bond issues for the Santa Ana Unified and Capistrano Unified school districts. However, Irvine and Huntington Beach school districts lost.

Capistrano’s $65-million bond issue was approved by 72.9% of the vote. In Santa Ana, with a $145-million levy at stake, 69.8% said yes.

Those might seem like comfortable margins of victory, but in this case appearances are deceiving. Unfortunately, it takes two-thirds approval to pass a school bond or a parcel tax.

The Irvine Unified School District put a parcel tax on the ballot but received only 62.4% of the vote. The president of the board warned of “deep and serious” cuts in the budget and said as many as 100 jobs might have to be eliminated to make ends meet.

In Huntington Beach, the approval percentage for a $123-million bond measure last week was just over 61%.

One reason for the failure in Irvine may have been the intent to use the money not to build or repair schools but to close a budget gap and retain arts, music and science programs. That’s considered a tougher sell than building new schools or fixing old ones, though as the Huntington Beach district learned, even pointing to needed repairs does not guarantee success.

Generally it should be an easier job to persuade voters that schools are overcrowded or rundown. All voters, not just parents, can see a playground covered with trailers used for classes or buildings with peeling paint. But even then, bond backers must persuade voters that their tax money will be spent wisely.

Capistrano had so little opposition that there was not even a ballot statement urging a “no” vote. In Santa Ana, however, there were critics of the school board who were worried how the money would be spent and accounted for. Those are questions that deserve answers. The district did a good job in persuading voters that it will establish an oversight committee to ensure that funds are spent properly.

District officials also won backing from labor unions, including teachers, and from business people in the city. The leaders of the campaign were the PTA president and the head of the local chamber of commerce.

Construction trades will benefit from the two high schools and 11 elementary schools to be constructed. Teachers, too, were obvious backers.

But it is crucial to get business support in pushing for bonds. Businesspeople make their living ensuring that projects pencil out. They also realize their need for well-educated employees. A school district should invite comments and solicit support from all sectors of the community, with business at or near the top of the list.

In Huntington Beach, school officials put together a team of businesspeople, architects, community volunteers and professional engineers that investigated the need for repairs. They found the need was clear at the six high schools, a continuation school and an adult school in Huntington Beach, Fountain Valley and Westminster. Still, it was not enough to win approval.

Passage of school bonds in Santa Ana and Capistrano Unified, along with successes in Buena Park last year and Brea Olinda Unified this year, indicates that Orange County voters do realize the importance of public schools and are willing to pay for them if a strong enough case is made. Bond approval also made the districts eligible for state education funds.

Rancho Santa Margarita faces a different challenge, that of forming a municipal government to take control Jan. 1. The newly elected City Council members have models to study in the other cities that have formed in South County in recent years. The wave of incorporations has marked Orange County’s transformation from a collection of rural enclaves.