FRESNO, Calif. — As voters cast their ballots, they will decide whether the state should borrow $10 billion to build and repair public schools and community colleges.
“Every student in the state deserves to be in a classroom that’s worthy of being educated in,” Yuri Calderon said. He is the Executive Director of the Small School Districts Association.
Proposition 2 would directly impact the campuses Calderon represents — those with less than 2,500 students.
“They are the vast majority of school districts in the state of California,” Calderon said. “They are – over 65% are small.”
Calderon says those schools are often overlooked and underrepresented in state funding and grants because urban schools are better equipped to apply for the money.
“That’s why these provisions are in this bond measure to ensure at least a portion of those funds end up in our rural and small communities,” Calderon said.
The state would distribute Proposition 2 money through matching grants, requiring districts to contribute from local funds.
The prop would not automatically raise taxes, but the state will need to find about $500 million a year to repay the loan.
“It’s just that these school boards are not living within their means,” Francisco Alanis of the Libertarian Party said.
He points out the bond measure will cost taxpayers much more than the proposed $10 billion. Interest will cost $8 billion over 35 years.
“To repay this bond, it’s going to increase property taxes, and I’m not just talking about homeowners,” Alanis said. Renters, as well.”
Proposition 2 goes before voters as Calderon says some school facilities are in poor shape.
“When you see places that don’t have clean drinking water, that they don’t have a sewer system that’s fully operational, that their bathrooms look like worse than a bus station bathroom … These are schools here in California,” Calderon said.
Alanis says Proposition 2 is an expensive ask that is unnecessary in the first place.
“School districts have an annual budget. So, if these repairs were really needed, these repairs should be budgeted in their annual budget,” Alanis said.
Proposition 2 comes four years after voters rejected a $15 billion bond proposal for schools in 2020. The last time voters approved borrowing money for schools was in 2016.
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