Features

Governor puts $25 billion in education bonds on November ballot

The Associated Press
Saturday April 27, 2002

LOS ANGELES — Measures to put $25.3 billion in education bond measures before California voters in two elections were signed by Gov. Gray Davis on Friday. 

The signing was held at a half-century-old elementary school that needs new classrooms to replace bungalows, new bathrooms and many other repairs, according to its principal. 

The two measures to go on ballots in the next two statewide elections represent the largest school bond package in California history. They would fund construction of classrooms and libraries and modernization of existing K-12 schools and colleges. 

“It’s time for the condition of our schoolhouses to reflect our commitment to our schools,” Davis said. “Test scores have gone up three years in a row. But you can’t build world-class schools without world-class school facilities. We need to build more classrooms, modernize existing ones, and wire them to the Internet.” 

The growth in state public school population requires building an estimated seven classrooms each day, seven days a week, for the next five years, the governor’s office said, and if the bonds are approved school projects would create an estimated 600,000 jobs. 

The measures would put a $13.05 billion bond issue up for voter approval in November, and a $12.3 billion bond issue for a statewide vote at the 2004 primary election. They would fund $21.4 billion in construction and modernization of K-12 schools, and $4 billion for state universities, colleges and community colleges. 

Legislators including the bond measures’ sponsor, Assemblyman Robert Hertzberg, D-Sherman Oaks, and education leaders including Los Angeles Schools Superintendent Roy Romer, attended the signing at the 525-student Clover Avenue Elementary School. 

The school opened in 1954. 

“A 50-year-old school has a lot of needs to bring it up to 21st century standards,” said Principal Maureen Melvold. “We have no communications safety link to our teachers and students to most classrooms, including the bungalows. We hoof it a lot.” 

Trenches now being dug on the campus are the start of a six-month project to install telephones and Internet links in the classrooms. 

Assembly Speaker Herb Wesson, D-Los Angeles/Culver City, said in Sacramento that the bond issues “give all of us a chance to prove that in California, we put our children first. Our kids won’t succeed in college or careers if they’re stuck in overcrowded schools with leaky roofs and broken windows or in classrooms that aren’t wired for technology.”