Editorial: How school districts could be transparent with voters
Related Editorial: East Bay school officials try to deceive voters again
School officials claim that the 75-word ballot limit for summarizing measures keeps them from clearly explaining to voters the amount of the tax for bond proposals. It’s not very hard, if they only tried. Here’s an example.
What Livermore Measure G says:
To upgrade aging classrooms, labs and job training facilities to meet safety/ instructional standards and support science, technology, engineering and math instruction; fix leaky roofs/ deteriorating plumbing/ electrical/ heating/ cooling systems; keep instructional technology up-to-date; and improve security/ fire/ earthquake safety shall Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District’s measure issuing $450,000,000 in bonds at legal rates, approximately 6¢ per $100 assessed value while bonds are outstanding ($30,000,000 annually) be adopted, with independent oversight, audits and no funds for administrator salaries?
What it could say:
To upgrade aging classrooms, labs and job training facilities to meet safety and instructional standards; fix leaky roofs and deteriorating plumbing, electrical, heating and cooling systems; update technology and improve security and fire and earthquake safety, shall Livermore Valley Joint Unified School District issue $450,000,000 in bonds, provide independent oversight and audits of spending, and tax property owners an average rate of $60 per $100,000 assessed value until fiscal year 2056-7?