Proposition 51 Voter Voices: They Have An Opinion

7 years ago Feature

PalacioMagazine.com has been working with the California State University, Long Beach Political Science class of Professor Som Chounlamountry to gather Voter Voices on Proposition 51. On November 8th, voters will speak. We wanted to hear their opinions ahead of the election. The students were asked to interview fellow students, family members, teachers or random people on the street.

Team B is composed of Emma Leal, Jaqueline Giraud, Jose Alfaro and Kali Tacub. Their Proposition was Prop 51: School Bonds. Funding for K-12 and Community College Facilities.

Voter Voices on Prop 51

The expansion of the K-12 school facilities and community colleges, as well as updating some of their facilities, will allow more students to attend these schools. The goal is to relieve overcrowded classrooms. There are currently California 8.3 million students attending its K-12 system and community colleges.

The state of California will enter a bond project in which the money from these bonds will be used to repair and/ or upgrade the school structures of K-12 as well as community colleges in the state.
The bonds will consist of $9 billion dollars that will be given to the school systems in the following forms: $6 billion will go to modernizing and fixing the K-12 schools, $1 billion will go to charter schools, and $2 billion will go to the community colleges and vocational schools.

The Choices Facing Voter Voices

The State of California currently has 8.3 million students attending school
- K-12 system have about 6.2 million
- Community colleges and vocational schools have about 2.1 million
Most of these schools have buildings that are over 25 years old and need renovations or expansions
The K-12 systems has seen overcrowding classrooms due to the lack of facility expansion

The Pro Voter Voices

The expansion of K-12 schools will create more classrooms for all grades. Which will lead to shrinkage in classroom size that results on students obtaining the teacher attention everyone needs; rather than overcrowding the classrooms and not servicing all students.
The bonds will lower the property taxes of the schools and it’s surroundings.
Expanding the structure of community colleges and vocational school will lower the costs of attending school, which will allow Veterans and prospective students to afford a continuing education.
The money can go to bringing schools fire and earthquake safety standards up to code.
Classroom technology will become modernized to help students prepare better for a more high-tech future
The bonds from this project will lower property taxes for the school and it’s surroundings.

The Con Prop 51 Voter Voices

The proposition is written in vague terms which can be easily manipulated
It will potentially put money into the hands of greedy developers and school administrations
The interest rate to be paid by the taxpayers will be nearly half of the allocated funds.
It stops legislators from providing fair school funding.
Funding will go to those first in line which are the wealthiest districts.
The wealthy districts will get the most portion of the money when disadvantaged schools should be receiving all the help.