This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Capistrano Unified Council PTSA Information re: Measure M

CUCPTSA is intentionally mis-leading the Public and should loose their not-for-profit status.

Dawn Urbanek, Neighbor

CUSD's PTA should looses its not-for-profit status for illegally ADVOCATING for the passage of Measure M by making false and misleading statements to the Public.

The Restriction of Political Campaign Intervention by Section 501(c)(3) Tax-Exempt Organizations
Under the Internal Revenue Code, all section 501(c)(3) organizations are absolutely prohibited from directly or indirectly participating in, or intervening in, any political campaign on behalf of (or in opposition to) any candidate for elective public office. Contributions to political campaign funds or public statements of position (verbal or written) made on behalf of the organization in favor of or in opposition to any candidate for public office clearly violate the prohibition against political campaign activity. Violating this prohibition may result in denial or revocation of tax-exempt status and the imposition of certain excise taxes.
Certain activities or expenditures may not be prohibited depending on the facts and circumstances. For example, certain voter education activities (including presenting public forums and publishing voter education guides) conducted in a non-partisan manner do not constitute prohibited political campaign activity. In addition, other activities intended to encourage people to participate in the electoral process, such as voter registration and get-out-the-vote drives, would not be prohibited political campaign activity if conducted in a non-partisan manner.
On the other hand, voter education or registration activities with evidence of bias that (a) would favor one candidate over another; (b) oppose a candidate in some manner; or (c) have the effect of favoring a candidate or group of candidates, will constitute prohibited participation or intervention.
Page Last Reviewed or Updated: 13-Sep-2016

https://www.irs.gov/charities-non-profits/charitable-organizations/the-restriction-of-political-campaign-intervention-by-section-501-c-3-tax-exempt-organizations

Education Code Section 7054 states:

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranofor free with the latest updates from Patch.

“No school district or community college district funds, services, supplies,
or equipment shall be used for the purpose of urging the support or defeat
of any ballot measure…”

However, these same public resources CAN be used to provide information to the public about the possible effects of any bond issue as long as that information constitutes a fair and impartial presentation of relevant facts to aid the electorate in reaching an informed judgment regarding the bond issue or ballot measure.

The following is being put out by CUSD's PTA:

The source of this document is: http://www.cucptsa.com/uploads//Analysis_of_Measure_M_cucptsa-final.pdf

CUPSTA is intentionally mis-stating the Arguments against Measure M.

Find out what's happening in San Juan Capistranofor free with the latest updates from Patch.

"Arguments Against:

The state of California should fully fund schools, including major facility upgrades and new
buildings. Some feel that the state funds should be sufficient, that education should be prioritized over
other projects, and that local funding should not have to be necessary."

It is not "some feel" - it is the California Constitution that mandates that the State FIRST fund education.

The California Constitution gives education funding a unique priority above all other state funding obligations by requiring:
"... from all state revenues there shall FIRST be set apart the monies to be applied by the State for support of the public school system..."
Cal. Const. art. XVI, §8. (Emphasis added)
California's public education system is the State of California's number one constitutionally mandated spending priority. However; the peoples elected representatives continue to withhold tax revenue that should be allocated to education of our students, and spend that revenue to create new programs and entitlements that are not constitutionally mandated. The Peoples elected representatives have in fact, unilaterally shifted the People's Constitutionally mandated spending priorities without a vote of the People. The continual lack of educational funding from the State of California has forced the Capistrano Unified School District to cut $152 million from it's budget since 2006 (32%). Despite the longest economic recovery in our nations history, the People's elected representatives have refused and failed to restore funding to public education, and have in fact implemented a new education funding law that limits per pupil funding to 2007-08 levels + inflation not to be reached until 2021. In 2007-08 State general fund revenues were $103 billion. Today they are estimated to exceed $123 billion. The State has sufficient revenues to provide every student with sufficient funding to achieve equality of educational opportunity, but is choosing not to honor its legal commitment to taxpayers and students. The continual lack of adequate funding from the State of California has resulted in a notable and measurable decline in the academic performance of students in the Capistrano Unified School District across all demographics. Every student in the Capistrano Unified School District is being denied their constitutional right to sufficient funding to achieve equality of educational opportunity.

FACILITIES FUNDING

The Public education system is the State of California's number one spending priority yet, in the State's 2016 5- year infrastructure plan, the State has chosen not to allocate a single penny to K-12 to K-12 facilities. The State wide plan for K-12 facilities under "Local Control" is to allow Counties- Cities and School Districts to fund facilities by passing local school facilities bonds. It is unconscionable that the State should keep tax revenue that should go to K-12 facilities, and spend that money on other projects (High Speed Rail) forcing taxpayers to raise new revenues to provide for clean, safe, warm and dry facilities. See: California 5-Year Infrastructure Program 2016 at page 50.

The People's elected representatives have unilaterally shifted the State's spending priorities from Public Education to other projects:

Transportation (High Speed Rail) $51 billion of the $55 billion in proposed infrastructure spending. See:California 5-Year Infrastructure Program 2016 at page 3

As a taxpayer many people feel they should have to pay more in taxes so that Jerry Brown can fund his ridicules train.



"Homeowners will pay increased property taxes and some are not able or not willing to pay more. Some
homes within the SFID area are also located in Community Facilities districts and subject to special MelloRoos taxes (Mello-Roos special taxes occur most often when a developer decides to finance the required public improvements for a new development over time rather than paying a lump sum. These financed improvements are paid off by new homeowners over time through the special tax.) Some do not want to pay for repairs to schools that are not in their immediate areas."

CUSD chose to approve an SDIC Bond rather than a General Obligation Bond because it wanted to exclude the Rancho Mission Viejo from the Bond despite the fact that students who live in Rancho Mission Viejo are attending CUSD schools. This was done to avoid political opposition to Measure M. So while some taxpayers will be paying 3 taxes to fund facilities 92 Mello Roos taxes + measure M)- some taxpayers will pay none. $60 per $100,000.00 accessed value for people who recently purchased homes means they will be taxed at a much higher rate then taxpayers who have owned their own home for many years. Accessed value on a $1 million dollar home could be as high as $600 per year for 35 years. While older homes valued much lower ie $400,000.00 would pay as little as $240 per year.

Parents are fundraising for Art- Music- Science- CSR - Instructional materials and supplies - instructional aids - librarians- counselors - nurses - employee compensation increases - teachers release time- and the list goes on. Over 90% of CUSD's budget goes to employee salaries, pensions and benefits. There is no funding budgeted for facilities. On top of these expenses, taxpayers living within Mello Roos districts are already paying twice for CUSD facilities. In fact the Grand Jury admonished CUSD for abusing taxpayers living in Mello Roos Districts. See: http://www.ocgrandjury.org/pdfs/2014_2015_GJreport/Mello-Roos_Website.pdf

"Because some schools are older than others and require more funds to update, spending may not be evenly spread among all campuses."

This is a correct statement. San Clemente having the oldest, most needy facilities will receive the first of the phased in money. The City of San Clemente will benefit at the expense of Cities who's school facilities are newer and may not see any facilities improvements for 15 years.

"Funding flexibility built into the bond could allow the district to change priorities away from currently listed projects."

This is a true statement. What most taxpayers do not understand is that this is a Prop 39 bond. Under Prop 39, school facilities bonds can be passed with 55% voter approval rather than the normally required 75% voter approval. As a condition of the lower voter approval, CUSD is required to specifically identify every project and its cost. CUSD did not do that.

A Facilities master plan was conducted by WC Architects in 2009.

The 2009 plan was reviewed in 2013. The 2016 plan that CUSD presented is identical to the 2009 Facilities Master plan. CUSD took the 2009 plan and without any "new" work added a 20% increase for "soft costs" and a 10% contingency. The 2016 plan contained projects like the Capo Valley High School Performing Arts Center on it... a project that had already been completed. When this was pointed out to CUSD, they removed that project from the new plan but failed to deduct the cost of the project from the bond expense. There were many other examples of this making it clear that CUSD did not do the work required to pass a bond under Prop 39.

No real work was done by CUSD to determine the actual facilities needs of CUSD schools in 2016- a violation of Prop 39.

On June 5, 2016 I sent a letter to Superintendent Vital and every City Council member expressing my concerns about this bond. The links can be accessed from this document:
http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2016/06/open-letter-to-taxpayers-and-residents.html




The PTA is no longer a voice for students- it is a voice for public employee unions who continually look for more and more revenue from taxpayers. The PTA should loose its not-for-profit status as a result of their intentional mis-conduct.

Here is my letter of resignation from the PTA because of their intentional mis-conduct during the 2010 CUSD Teachers Union Strike. http://disclosurecusd.blogspot.com/2012/10/april-26-2010-letter-of-resignation.html

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from San Juan Capistrano