An Open Letter on March 11th to CASH Members and Colleagues from David Walrath, Legislative Advocate for the Coalition for Adequate School Housing (CASH)
Thank you for your support and work to provide continued state matching funding for local school facility projects. Your commitment to public education and students is always inspiring. Unfortunately, that commitment was not shared by enough voters on March 3rd to pass Proposition 13-the state school bond, and many local school bonds. Yesterday evening, the yes vote was at 45.9%, and the campaign team notified supporters that Proposition 13 is not expected to meet the 50% threshold to pass this election.
The last time we lost a state school bond election (1994) we regrouped, went forward and secured the current School Facility Program (1998) and better access to local funding through lowering the voter approval requirement for local bonds from two-thirds to 55% (2000).
The CASH leadership and staff share your commitment to ensuring every student and teacher have access to safe, clean quality learning environments. We are now developing Plan B, and look forward to working with you to obtain both better and more stable state funding support for local school facility projects, and more secure local funding.
This will take time. First, we need to understand fully the reasons why so many voters chose not to support the state and local bonds. With that knowledge we will be able to develop programs that will better meet voter approval, provide greater funding stability and address the issues needed to ensure that all students and teachers have clean, safe, and quality learning environments.
Thank you for your support and commitment. We look forward to your help in using these losses as stepping stones to a better school facility program.
