With little time to spare, the legislature last week passed and Governor Newsom signed a $15 billion school construction bond, placing the bond measure—called the Public Preschool, K–12, and College Health and Safety Bond Act of 2020—on the March 2020 primary ballot. Given Californians’ general support for funding education, how do they feel about bond measures for school construction projects?
In our April survey, about 60% of likely voters said they would vote yes on a bond for K–12 school construction projects, while in November 2018 a larger majority supported a bond to pay for construction projects in California’s public higher education system. In both surveys, there was majority support across regions and demographic groups—except among whites (47%) for the K–12 bond. For both types of bonds, support was lower among whites than other racial/ethnic groups, and support decreased as age and income levels rose.
