Yes to L.A. school funding
There was a time when a vote for is not the time to skimp on equipping local a school bond meant the public schools. was chipping in to build needed The pandemic also has shown that alschools for a growing population though the way Deasy went about buying of families. Then it meant renotechnology was wrong, his basic idea was vating and refurbishing school buildings right. L.A. Unified students have been set up that had become dangerous eyesores. Rewith laptops and tablets in recent months member the late 1990s days of crumbling for their remote lessons. The giveaways playgrounds and trash cans strategically were patched together under tight condiplaced in classrooms to catch the rain? tions. Students also have broadband for
But in the Los Angeles Unified School now. District, the needs of decades have been Truth is, students have long needed For decades I have been yawning and ongoing. As the school-age these devices as well as internet access — waiting to see legislation populations ballooned, students were just not $800 hyper-equipped iPads. Low-inthat addresses blatant squeezed into classrooms on year-round come students have been at a terrible disadabuses of presidential schedules that shorted instructional time. vantage without them. COVID-19 shone a power. Finally, Schiff ’s new The result was several bonds for new propharsh light on an unacceptable learning dilegislation would put into
place reforms that will erty and buildings. vide.
hopefully prevent future Then came the biggest school bond in It’s unclear whether bond money, which
attacks on our democracy history, the $7-billion Measure Q in 2008, generally must be spent on durable goods
— attacks that resonate which was more for refurbishment of old reflecting the 30-year life of the bond payaround the world. buildings than the construction of new ones. ments, can be spent on electronic devices If the abuses of presiThe need for renovations was genuine, but that generally don’t last more than a few dential power during the the borrowing was simply too much. years and broadband access, which is a conGeorge W. Bush adminis
Public trust in the measure eroded when, tinually renewed item. But the time has tration, most notably the years later, then-Supt. John Deasy procome for us to yank our brains out of 20th prosecution of the deceitful posed spending more than a billion dollars century ideas of school equipment and real“war on terror,” had been on overpriced iPads for all students, loaded ize that computers (and the ability to conaddressed by Congress, with expensive but problematic educational nect with them) are as vital to education as perhaps the current adsoftware. The program bombed early, savdesks. The Legislature should take the first ministration would have ing the taxpayers many hundreds of milsteps toward making this kind of bond exthought twice about being lions of dollars. penditure explicitly legal. For that matter, so blatantly unethical.
Twelve years after Measure Q, L.A. Unithere’s no reason bond money shouldn’t be If President Obama had fied is back with a $7-billion bond proposal, used for basic school supplies such as pensigned such legislation Measure RR. But times have changed drascils, notebooks, tissues and similar items. during his first term in tically, and this time the district has done a Society has to end the days of teachers office, when the Democrats
controlled both houses of far more responsible job of listing the exshelling out their own money for what
Congress, we might not penditures, including a long tally of school schools should provide.
have found ourselves in roofs that need replacing. Measure RR would cost about $22 per
such an inconceivable Even more important, the COVID-19now.$100,000ofpropertyvalue,orcloseto$110forRe“Acallfordemocracynightmareright pandemic has made clear that new investa $500,000 home. But the payments would reforms,” Opinion, Jan. 23 ments in school infrastructure and equipnot be made on top of remaining debt from ment are crucial right now and that the pubMeasure Q. It would be layered in bit by bit, lic cannot expect these to come out of a deso that taxpayers would not see their tax pleted general budget. In addition to the bills changed by the new measure. Of needs that already existed — earthquake course, their bills wouldn’t go down, either, retrofitting, access for disabled people and once the previous debt is paid off. so forth — conducting COVID-era lessons Maybe they never would go down. Measafely in classrooms calls for new expendisure RR doesn’t take care of all the deferred tures. Top-of-the-line air systems, personal work needed on school property, but it’s a protective gear, possibly plexiglass separabig step forward. We wholeheartedly entions or shaded outdoor “classrooms.” This dorse it.