State Bond Measure would Provide for School Improvements

California schools will suffer greatly if voters don’t pass Proposition 51 this November, a proponent of that measure said Thursday.

If approved, the bond initiative will raise $9 billion for school repairs at K-12 facilities and community colleges throughout the state, said Jenny Hannah, chair of California’s Coalition for Adequate School Housing, a non-profit in Sacramento.

If voters say no to Prop. 51, each school district will have to rely on whatever local funding it can scrape together to pay for renovation and construction.

That will create “unacceptable” discrepancies in classroom conditions between wealthy and less affluent districts, Hannah said during the inaugural education summit held by the Baldy View Chapter of the Building Industry Association of Southern California.

“Our school districts are trying to do a good job, but there are only so many ways they can raise fees,” said Hannah, who moderated a panel discussion during the summit. “Schools will face dire consequences if this doesn’t pass.

“Seventy to 75 percent of the schools in California are at least 25 years old, and a lot of them need work,” Hannah said. “Without Proposition 51, some of them will have to decide whether to hire a teacher or fix the roof.”

The summit, which was held at the Chaffey College-Chino Community Center, attracted about 200 people. It featured several panel discussions and a video that described the world in 2028: Islam will be the world’s most popular religion, China the dominant economy, the “average man” will be a 34-year-old from India and driverless cars will be commonplace.

Meanwhile, technology will continue to progress at a breakneck pace, creating jobs that today can’t be predicted.

“We’re still training people for one career, and that’s scary,” said Jay Fiene, dean of the College of Education at Cal State San Bernardino. “Most students today will have two or three careers during their lifetime.”