Bond Issue for Schools Advances

In the latest bid to help California’s overcrowded and deteriorating schools, leading lawmakers rushed Thursday to complete a plan for a record $22 billion in school construction bonds.

They scrambled, as the Legislature headed toward adjournment, to fashion a bond issue proposal that would eclipse the record $9.2 billion voters approved just three years ago for school facilities.

“We are trying to find a way of actually getting some decent, clean schools for kids in rural areas and kids in urban areas,” said Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), who chairs a legislative committee studying the school bond issue. “It’s just very difficult to learn if you don’t have decent facilities.”

Under a proposal discussed by the committee Thursday evening, voters in March of 2002 would be asked to approve a bond issue of about $12 billion, followed by another of around $10 billion in November of 2004.

The proposal came to life as Gov. Gray Davis suddenly signaled to legislators that he would support billions in borrowing for a variety of projects.

School officials and advocates have been pushing for a $27-billion bond issue for new construction program to build new schools and modernize aging facilities. But Davis, preoccupied with the energy emergency and falling revenues, had not committed himself to a sum.

The breakthrough came Thursday when Department of Finance officials announced they could live with overall borrowing of up to $15 billion next year--about $12 billion of it for schools. No more than $10 billion should be borrowed overall in 2004, they said, with $6 billion to $7 billion of that earmarked for education.

But the schools could have plenty of potential competition. Other bond issue measures in the works include $2.6 billion for parks, $200 million to improve California’s balloting system and $800 million for new housing.

The school bond proposal, expected to contain both the 2002 and 2004 measures, requires a two-thirds majority vote in each house of the Legislature. That means it is necessary for at least one Republican in the Senate and four in the Assembly to support the plan.

It is still unclear whether Republican lawmakers are on board.

Sen. Chuck Poochigian, a Fresno Republican who is his party’s point man on school bond matters in the Senate, said the division of new bond money among schools across the state and the timing of bond measures are potential stumbling blocks.

Support exists among some Democrats for the first measure to appear in November 2002.

Republicans would like to see a measure on the March 2002 ballot, as would the Coalition for Adequate School Housing, which represents about 500 school districts in California. By one estimate, $4 billion is needed to complete existing projects.

“If there’s a March bond, that money could go out as early as March or April to projects that are on hold,” said Thomas Duffy, a coalition lobbyist.

Their concerns appeared to be addressed during the Thursday night hearing when talk of allowing voters to decide the first bond switched from November to March.

A proposal to set aside about $5 billion of money raised from the proposed bonds for “urgently needed facilities” would address the needs of schools that are low performing, highly crowded and operating year-round on multiple tracks. Those schools are often urban ones, and are at a disadvantage in competition for bond funds because available land for new campuses is scarce.

About half of Los Angeles Unified’s students attend school year-round. District officials say a new bond measure is critically needed to update and build schools to handle the load.

“We have to build another 130,000 [student capacity] beyond what is planned,” said Caprice Young, president of the Los Angeles Unified school board.