What the Prop 15 Failure Means for OUSD Finances

After an intense and pricey campaign, Proposition 15 has failed. The property tax reform measure, which would have raised billions for local governments and schools, lost by a narrow margin.

Education and labor leaders who embraced the initiative, eager for the much needed bump in funding, are coping with the verdict from voters. “It’s really frustrating,” said Matthew Duffy, the superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified School District. “Because it continues to create an understanding that you’re only going to have a good education if you have money.”

He argued that persistent underfunding has public schools trapped in a downward spiral. “When you drain money from these systems they don’t perform as well,” he said, “and then their reputation suffers, people don’t want to give money to them.” He saw Proposition 15 as one of the first systemic opportunities to counteract that trend in decades.

Education funding in California has never fully recovered from the effects of 1978’s Proposition 13, which capped property taxes. Proposition 15 would have stripped some businesses of those protections and put $6.5 billion to $11.5 billion a year in new revenue toward schools and local governments, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office.

Still, Proposition 15 was no silver bullet, says Michael Fine, who runs the Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, the state agency that oversees financially strapped school districts. He points to research that found it would take roughly another $25 billion a year to adequately fund the state’s schools.

“Would it have helped? No question about it,” Fine said. “Was it the solution? No.”

Oakland Education Association president Keith Brown urged those who fought for Proposition 15 to keep their heads up. “The movement that was created by educators, labor and the community to push forward real tax reform in this state of California in order to address the needs of our students and community, that’s very powerful,” he said. “We’re going to continue to work and fight to make sure we fully fund public education.”

Across the Bay Area, voters approved bonds and taxes to fund their local school districts.

—Vanessa Rancano (@vanessarancano)

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