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Ed Committee backs crackdown on interest-deferred bonds
Despite opposition from several education organizations, the Assembly Education Committee on Wednesday voted 6-0 for a bill that would severely restrict school districts’ ability to float construction bonds that would saddle future taxpayers with huge balloon payments. These financial instruments are known as capital appreciation bonds, or CABs, and they have become common over the past decade. By deferring payments on the bonds for sometimes decades and extending the term of the bonds to 30 or … Read entire article »
Filed under: California Colleges, Facilities, Featured, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis
Legislative Analyst urges conditions on selling property
The Legislative Analyst’s Office is taking issue with Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to remove restrictions limiting how school districts can use money from the sale of district property. The LAO wants to add a condition intended to make a district carefully weigh the option of selling district property to plug a hole in its general operating budget. Until the recession, with few exceptions, districts had to put money from the sale of district land and buildings … Read entire article »
Filed under: Facilities, Featured, Reporting & Analysis
LAUSD approves $50 million in bonds for student computers
The Los Angeles Unified School Board has approved using $50 million in school construction bonds to buy tablet computers, install wireless systems and train teachers in their use at 47 schools. It’s the first step in what eventually would cost 10 times that amount to supply all 600,000-plus LAUSD students with portable computers. The board gave the go-ahead without having questions answered on whether students will be able to take the equipment home, according to the Los Angeles Daily News. (See an earlier EdSource Today article that discusses the wisdom and perhaps the legality of purchasing portable computers, with short life spans, for students through long-term bonds. Some districts do it; others avoid the practice.) … Read entire article »
Filed under: Facilities, Quick Hits, Technology
New Assembly Education chair skeptical of plan for weighted funding
Any bill to change the way that California funds its public schools will have to go through Joan Buchanan, and that could present problems for Gov. Jerry Brown. Buchanan is the new chair of the Assembly Education Committee, and, as she made clear in a lengthy interview with EdSource Today (see transcript), she’s skeptical of Brown’s weighted student formula, which he plans to reintroduce next year. Her views reflect those of suburban and demographically better off school … Read entire article »
Filed under: Charter Schools, Common Core standards, Equity issues, Evaluations, Facilities, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Getting Down To Facts studies, Reporting & Analysis, Student spending, Teacher Pay, Teacher Unions, Technology, Tests & Assessments, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Local votes of confidence: Most bonds, parcel taxes pass
Proposition 30, raising statewide taxes to support education, was a nail biter, struggling to get a majority of voters behind it. But that wasn’t the case for most K-12 parcel taxes and school construction bonds on the ballot Tuesday. Voters passed 14 of 22 parcel taxes by margins of victory ranging from 67.1 percent – just above the requisite two-thirds majority – to an impressive 77.3 percent, in the Berryessa School District in San Jose … Read entire article »
Filed under: Facilities, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Parcel Tax, Reporting & Analysis
California’s school facilities need a shot in the arm
California’s school facilities need an infusion of $117 billion during the next decade, with close to half of the funding needed to replace or repair existing schools, according to a report by UC Berkeley’s Center for Cities & Schools. The report, released this week, called on state leaders to develop a comprehensive school facilities master plan that will address past inequities in funding among school districts, involve districts in regional land use planning to reduce greenhouse … Read entire article »
Filed under: Facilities, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes
Proposed restrictions on school bonds would harm districts
March 24th, 2013 | 23 Comments | By Seth Rosenblatt / commentary
We’ve seen this pattern time and again. Some public agency or public official gets negative press for apparent bad behavior. Often it is deserved, and sometimes not. But far too frequently the press oversimplifies the situation and reduces the story to sensational sound bites. Then politicians jump into the fray, promising to fix the situation and “protect taxpayers” (who wouldn’t support that?). But it’s likely that the issue is more nuanced than at first perceived, … Read entire article »
Filed under: Commentary, Facilities, Featured, Funding and Taxation