The Daily Cal article included a disturbing snippet about the Berkeley School Board’s discussion of a proposed bond measure:

“To pay for construction and maintenance projects, the district is considering putting a bond on the ballot for November. At the meeting, the district looked over the language of a bond.”

Hopefully the school board understands that bond measures cannot be used for maintenance projects unless you formulate a despised Mello-Roos bond. Every single public administration best practice calls for maintenance to be paid for out of the general fund.

And competent public servants have capital projects in mind before contemplating a bond measure to the tune of over $200 million. What specific projects are being proposed? I certainly hope the bond language is very specific this time around, since we’re still paying for the $116 million bond measure of 2000 that called for new classrooms at BHS, yet the school board didn’t bother to ensure we got those classrooms.

Last time around, polling showed people would support a bond measure if it called for building new classrooms at BHS, so that language was on the bond measure. The school board failed to get those classrooms built.

Bond measures cannot be used to shore up budget gaps and their wording must be specific or public servants will weasel out of their commitment to the community to whom they’re handing over the bill.