Local school bonds on ballot would widen facilities gap among poor districts

An analysis by an institute at UC Berkeley of the 57 local school construction bond proposals on the Nov. 3 ballot reveals that the long-standing patterns of inequity in public school facility funding in California “remain strong.”

The size of the proposed bonds varies tremendously, from $2 million proposed by Sunnyside Union Elementary School District in Tulare County to $7 billion on the ballot in Los Angeles Unified. These amounts also vary greatly by enrollment: from $318 per student at Dehesa Elementary School District in San Diego County to $85,950 per student at Sausalito-Marin City School District, according to researchers Jeff Vincent and José Lopez of the Center for Cities and Schools at UC Berkeley.

They found that districts with higher local property values per student and with higher median household incomes would generate more money per student than property-poor districts and those with lower household incomes. Also, districts with higher proportions of low-income students are proposing bonds that would yield less bonding per student than bonds proposed by wealthier communities.

In past years, matching money from state construction bonds would compensate for some of the disparities. But voters in March narrowly defeated a $15 billion state construction bond, Proposition 13, that would have replenished state funding for school districts that passed school bonds. As a result, until voters pass a new bond or the Legislature appropriates more money through the state budget, the state has run out of school construction aid for districts.