Paying for Education Facilities

New educational facilities and upgrades are mostly funded by:

• Local school bonds – the average family pays about $200 per year toward local school bonds in their property taxes or rent.
• State school bonds – the average family pays about $250 per year for state school bonds through state income and sales taxes.

In most cases, local school and community college bonds can now be passed by 55% of voters. Since the change, over 80% of local school bonds have passed and there is a lot of new school construction working to address dramatic enrollment growth in the past decade.

Over the past 10 years, voters have approved $28 billion in state bonds for K-12 school building projects. Most of that money has already been spent. To get state bond money, a school district must put up half the cost of a new building or 40% for repairs to old ones. Usually, the school’s local matching funds come from voter-approved bonds that are paid back with an extra property tax.

Over the same period, voters have approved $6.5 billion in state bonds for construction at community colleges and public universities. Most of that money has also already been spent. Community colleges also sometimes use local bonds to pay for construction. California’s public universities cannot use local bonds and therefore rely mostly on state bonds and private gifts.

Comparing California to Other States

In the 2004-05 school year, California ranked 30th in per-pupil spending on education, below average compared to other states. We are 43rd when adjusted for cost of living. Only 67.9% of California students graduate high school or get a high school equivalency diploma. (Due to a variety of factors; the dropout rate may be higher and unrecorded.) College graduation rates in California are 49th in the country; only Mississippi has a worse college graduation record.