California Schools Finances

By now, the horror stories are commonplace. On a blistering August day in Sacramento, a visiting Washington politician finds, to her dismay, first-graders sweltering in a summer school classroom without air conditioning or even a fan. In the Southland, the heating and air conditioning systems at Huntington Beach High School have malfunctioned for the last three years.

With California's economy booming and politicians seizing on the popular election-year issue of education, public schools reaped big rewards from Sacramento's annual summer round of deal-making. But the education lobby also suffered setbacks. What the schools got was indeed substantial, and in some cases historic. Tops on the list was a $9.2-billion school bond measure placed on the Nov.

The Assembly on Wednesday approved legislation requiring HMOs and health insurers to cover the costs of contraceptives for women, sending the bill to Gov. Pete Wilson, who has vowed to veto it. The Assembly also approved, 67 to 9, a measure that will place before voters in November a record $9.2-billion bond for construction of schools and colleges. The state Senate approved the bill Tuesday, and Wilson has said he will sign it.

The state Senate on Tuesday overwhelmingly voted to place on the November ballot a record $9.2-billion bond measure designed to relieve California's needy public schools. The Assembly is expected to follow suit as early as today and send the measure to Gov. Pete Wilson, who announced that the "Legislature has met my challenge" to send him a bond bill he is happy to sign. "This is truly historic," said Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), who helped write the bill.

This is it for Gov. Pete Wilson, the end of the game. Not only is it his last at-bat, it's his last swing. It's his last week to drive in runs, to produce legislation. He's mainly playing for more education reforms, a school bond issue with construction finance reforms and a water bond that agriculture can support. The 1997-98 legislative session--Wilson's last as governor--will be history by next Monday. After that, his role in the Capitol will be essentially reactive--signing or vetoing bills.

A move by Gov. Pete Wilson to strip important powers from school boards and give it to parent-teacher groups is sparking outrage among local officials, who say they are poised to fight. "You would have anarchy," predicted Capistrano Unified School District Supt. James A. Fleming. "I am convinced the people of this state will reject any ill-conceived initiative."

Republican gubernatorial candidate Dan Lungren on Tuesday endorsed the idea of a multibillion-dollar school construction bond for the November ballot and advocated spending $1 billion for new textbooks over the next four years. In the past, Lungren has downplayed the need for more funding, but in a speech to the Orange County Forum, a nonpartisan public affairs group, he put a dollar amount behind his education proposals for the first time.

The California Assembly's massive $9-billion school bond proposal was stopped cold in the state Senate on Thursday, but the upper house kept the measure alive by ordering a committee to go to work making changes. The Senate voted unanimously to send the bill to a two-house conference committee to recommend revisions, addressing mainly the concerns of Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco). Burton has called the plan a giveaway to residential developers.

After months of partisan battling and intraparty fighting, the Assembly on Monday overwhelmingly approved legislation asking voters in November to approve a record $9-billion school construction bond--but there is still a snag. The measure must first pass the state Senate where prospects are uncertain. Senate Leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) adjourned the upper house earlier in the day, saying he would not approve a bond deal with conditions--and the Assembly bond bill is full of conditions.