Part 1: $1 Billion Dollar Bond for Capistrano Unified School District Facilities-

PART ONE OF A THREE PART ARTICLE

1) It is the State of California's Constitutionally mandated spending obligation to fund facilities for Public Education.

Article IX Section 5 of the California Constitution finds public education is a State responsibility.

Article 1 Section 28 of the California Constitution states that public schools shall be safe, secure and peaceful.

44 Years of California case law require the State to to provide every California student with substantially equal opportunities to achieve a quality education. "Equal Opportunity to achieve a quality education" has been defined by the courts to be:

"... opportunity to obtain high quality staff, program expansion and variety, beneficial teacher-pupil ratios and class sizes, modern equipment and materials, and high quality buildings." [Serrano v. Priest II (1876) 18 Cal. 3rd 748]

The State's Education Funding Law LCFF limits K-12 funding to 2007-08 levels + inflation but does not promise to reach 2007-08 levels of funding until 2021.

Under this new law, CUSD will have had flat funding for 14 years straight-

Capistrano Unified School District Per Pupil Funding

2007-08 $7,694

2008-09 $7,614

2009-10 $7,246

2010-11 $7,228

2011-12 $7,469

2012-13 $7,002

2013-14 $7,419

2014-15 $8,042

By 2021 $7,694 + Inflation or approximately $8,271

Source: CDE Cost per ADA CUSD is County Code 30

http://www.cde.ca.gov/ds/fd/ec/currentexpense.asp

In 2007-08 State General Fund Revenues were $103 billion.

Today State General Fund Revenues exceed $123 billion... a record high.

The State has sufficient tax revenue to fund facilities for public education without requiring school districts to raise matching funds. If taxpayers vote to raise "new" revenue for schools, the State will spend the $20 billion in "surplus tax revenue" on new programs and entitlements that are not constitutionally mandated.

2) Despite record high revenues, the State of California is "choosing" not to provide any funding for K-12 facilities in it's 2016 5-year Infrastructure Plan .

The 2016 California 5-Year Infrastructure Plan; is a $55 billion plan. The plan does not allocate a single penny to K-12 Public Education infrastructure. But, it does allocate $51 billion of the $55 billion for "Transportation" aka "High Speed Rail".

Rather than vote to increase our indebtedness, taxpayers should force the legislature to allocate our tax revenue to fix sub-standard school facilities rather than spend money on High Speed Rail.

Source: http://www.ebudget.ca.gov/2016-Infrastructure-Plan.pdf see page 3

*Note the $96 million for education is for State Special Schools and the Hastings College of Law. There is nothing for K-12 Public Education.

3) The Size of the Bond is Outrageous - Over $1 Billion When Matching Funds Are Added.

The number is based on a 2009 Facilities Master Plan. The District commissioned WCL Architects to study facilities issues at each site. Then each school family developed a "wish list" of everything they wanted to have at their school site (whether or not it was practical or necessary). The 2009 plan was presented to the Board on August 12, 2009 as an Information/Discussion Item. This Plan was never voted on, or approved by the Board. The 7 year old $801,566,484 total was never vetted.

$889 million + $200 million in matching funds is over $ 1 billion in new expenditures.

*Note: The link to the 2009 Facilities Master Plan item is broken (CUSD has been notified) -

http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/cms/page_view?d=x&piid=&vpid=1219972013336

You can find it a second way:

http://capousd.ca.schoolloop.com/file/1219972013237/1218998864154/1664994960705321282.pdf

What CUSD has done is taken the wish list total of $801,566,484 and simply increased it by a percentage guesstimate. There has been no "re-evaluation" of actual facilities needs. There has been no indication as to what if any facilities needs have already been addressed so that those costs could be deducted from the 2009 Facilities Needs list.

There has certainly not been any justification for $1 Billion dollars in needed funding.

2009 Facilities Needs: $801,566,915.39

2016 Facilities Needs: $883,433,606 20% increase for "Soft Costs" 10% "Contingency" = $200 million in additional funding.

4) School districts up and down the State are "rushing" to pass school facilities bonds in order to be first-in-line for "matching funds".

CUSD is entitled to up to $200 million in matching funds if voters pass the California Public Education Facilities Bond Initiative (2016). This is a State-wide Bond initiative that is separate from the Local Bond initiative that CUSD is trying to pass.

Should taxpayers rush to pass an $889 million dollar bond just to receive matching funds of $200 million?

CUSD could ask for any bond amount above $200 million and receive the matching funds. If CUSD needs $8,000 million then why aren't they talking about a bond amount of $600 + the $200 million in matching funds for a total of $800 million.

There is no justification for a $1 Billion dollar bond.

Note: The State Bond initiative; if passed, will create $9 billion in new bond debt that would cost taxpayers $500 million a year for the next 35 years to service. On top of that, tax payers in CUSD would have to service a $1 Billion dollar Bond at an additional amount above and beyond the $500 million per year.

https://ballotpedia.org/California_Public_Education_Facilities_Bond_Initiative_(2016)

Note: A 30-year bond includes compound interest about double the initial offering, putting the total cost to local taxpayers at $1.8 billion.

http://www.ocregister.com/articles/bond-719596-district-dana.html

Note: In additional to a State Facilities Bond and a CUSD Bond, there is also the potential for a Saddleback Valley Unified School District Bond and an Orange County Department of Education Bond and a Saddleback College Bond. Under "Local Control" every City, County and District is being given increased power to tax at the local level. How many different taxes are you willing to pay for a service (Public Education) that the State of California is already obligated to fund out of existing taxes?

5) If CUSD places an $889 billion dollar bond on the November ballot, it will be the single largest unified school district bond ever voted on.

For a list of School Bonds Elections and Facilities Bond amounts see: https://ballotpedia.org/School_bond_elections_in_California