School bond backers hope for a victory

Greater turnout in a presidential year may help pass LAUSD’s Measure RR.

The Los Angeles Unified School district is asking voters to increase their property taxes and approve a $ 7- billion bond measure that would pay for campus renovation and construction as well as technology, which has risen to prime importance during coronavirus-forced distance learning.

School bonds in Los Angeles and statewide have not fared well lately, but Measure RR supporters have reason for optimism: There’s no significant opposition campaign and the November electorate stands to be more tax friendly.

A possible parallel would be Measure Q, which the school district put on the ballot in 2008. That earlier $ 7- billion bond measure passed easily during the November election that brought Barack Obama to office. Then as now, liberal leaning Democrats were especially inspired to vote.

“The much higher turnout of a presidential election will increase turnout among voters who are strong supporters of education and schools,” said veteran political consultant Bill Carrick, who is not working on the bond campaign. “Younger voters, African- Americans, Latinos, Asians, and Democrats will all turn out at higher levels. These voters should be largely Yes on Measure RR voters.”

The largest school district in California has a long list of repairs and upgrades, including work on ceilings, bus purchases, new air conditioners and seismic retrof its. Also on the list are mobile computers and other technology.

To pass, 55% of voters who live within L. A. Unified boundaries — which extend beyond the city — would have to favor Measure RR.

How much would taxes increase?

To make the bond tax more appealing — and less noticeable — L. A. Unified off icials say the measure is structured to keep the overall tax rate for schools about where it is now, through 2034, before it begins to taper off over the following 20 years. The annual property tax payment for schools during that peak period would be about $ 140 per $ 100,000 of assessed property value. This f igure would include Measure RR and other previously passed bonds that taxpayers are still paying off.

The share of that tax bill resulting from Measure RR by itself would work out, on average, to $ 22 a year per $ 100,000 of assessed property value.

How do bond funds address schools’ pandemic needs?

When the COVID- 19 pandemic forced campuses to close in March, L. A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner moved quickly to allocate $ 80 million left over from previous bonds to purchase up to 200,000 computers to meet the distance- learning needs of students who did not have a computer.

The district used other funding sources — including state and federal coronavirus relief aid — to purchase hot spots for broadband access, which students also needed. So far, the district has not used bond funds to purchase off- campus internet access, but that would be allowed under Measure RR.

Although the district hopes pandemic costs will be covered by outside emergency aid, Measure RR funds would be permitted to cover a wide range of these expenses, including “wellventilated spaces, hand sanitizing stations, touchless faucets, automatic f lush urinals and toilets, motion- sensor hand dryers, touchless/ hands- free/ automatic doors, and physical barriers such as clear plastic sneeze guards,” according to the resolution approved by the school board.

Will these bonds be used for computers?

Because bonds are paid back over decades and technology often has a short shelf life, some argue that bond money should not be used for such purchases. But fewer have made this argument as the role of technology in schools has increased.

Since campuses closed in March, students from lowincome families without computers and internet access have been disproportionally harmed in distance learning.

The school board’s Measure RR resolution makes it clear that money will be spent to continue to bridge this digital divide, specifying the need to purchase “119,400 new computing devices annually, and a total of 1.2 million new individual computing devices over 12 years as the existing devices age, become unreliable and no longer perform as needed.”