Although the choosing of a new president headlines the elections on Nov. 4, a proposition at the bottom of the ballot is important to San Diego schools. Proposition S is the San Diego School Repair and Safety Measure. If it is passed, the San Diego Unified School District will issue $2.1 billion in general obligation bonds to make physical repairs and upgrade technology to schools within the district, with the aim to make schools safer and more advanced. The proposition requires 55 percent of the vote to pass. If Proposition S passes, five area schools will receive upgrades, including Bird Rock, La Jolla and Torrey Pines elementary schools and La Jolla and University City high schools. In terms of technological upgrades, each of those schools will have wireless Internet networks installed and there will be audiovisual projection capabilities for every student. Other areas of upgrade with the passing of the bond are designed to support student health and safety, improve school accessibility, adhere to code compliances and repair or replace outdated buildings and other physical aspects of the school. These projects would be undertaken at each school. If Proposition S passes, it will be the second time in 10 years that San Diego voters passed a bond designated for school repairs. In 1998, 78 percent of voters approved Proposition MM, which gave district schools $1.51 billion to modernize existing schools and build new schools. According to the Education for Children Web site, Proposition MM is 98 percent completed at $82 million less than its original budget. In addition, Proposition MM won the San Diego County Taxpayers Association’s Grand Golden Watchdog Award in 2005 for efficiently using taxpayer dollars. “We felt overall that the performance on Prop MM was good,” said John C. O’Neill, chair of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association. The way that Proposition S is written makes it an extension of Proposition MM. This means Proposition MM’s maximum taxable rate of $66.70 per $100,000 of assessed value will not increase. It also means that citizens will continue to be taxed for the next couple of decades to pay for the school repairs. San Diego County Taxpayers Association policy analyst Chris State said the bond has a 40-year repayment period. A decade after it was passed Proposition MM is considered successful, but there were some allegations of corruption involved with it. Pat Flannery, an accountant and real estate broker in San Diego County who co-wrote the ballot argument opposing Proposition S, said that the abuses of Proposition MM took the form of potential conflicts of interest when the building contracts were awarded. “My opinion is that they squandered that on big contracts and massive favoritism,” Flannery said. In order to avoid potential corruption this time around, Proposition S has accountability safeguards written into it. These include evaluation of needs, bond issuance limitation, an independent citizens oversight committee, and annual performance and financial audits. The San Diego County Taxpayers Association recommends voting “yes” on Proposition S. O’Neill was one of the signers in favor of the proposition. “We have a number of criteria that we apply to school bonds and it satisfied that criteria,” O’Neill said. The Taxpayers Association’s criteria for school bonds include need for the project, viability of the plans, proper oversight of the project and realistic timeframes and schedules. The association looked only at the school bonds themselves, not at how this funding could be applied elsewhere. “It would be difficult to put any other need higher than schools,” O’Neill said. “That’s really a value judgment. We didn’t weigh it against other needs of the city.” Education for Children is another organization in favor of Proposition S. It claims the schools’ needs are imminent, especially those in the city. “Most of San Diego city schools are over 40-plus years old and they are deteriorating from the inside out,” said Will Tate, Education for Children media director. Tate said education spending should be first and foremost even with the city’s current budget crisis. “There’s always a need to be fixed somewhere,” Tate said. “Every time we have a fiscal problem, it always hurts education.” If passed, the $2.1 billion will go to San Diego Unified School District schools even though public school enrollment has declined overall over the past several years, despite a slight bump upward during the past two years. Despite that fact, Tate said passing a bond such as Proposition S is a better option than school consolidation, which would create logistical problems for many students. “Children should be able to go to schools in their own neighborhood,” Tate said. If Proposition S fails, Education for Children claims that further attempts to attain school funding via the vote will only cost more. “In 2010, by every estimate that we have, it is going to cost $250 million more,” Tate said. “It is more fiscally expedient to get it done right now.” In addition to a greater cost, pushing these education bonds to a later election would not solve the pressing issues with district schools. The most pressing of these issues is a lack of technology, which can compromise a student’s education. “The children are the future. We have to invest in the children’s education for the future,” Tate said. “We’re becoming unable to compete.” Flannery said there are many reasons that voters should vote against Proposition S. One argument against Proposition S is that right now the city itself needs the money more than the schools. “We don’t know exactly what we are facing with the city’s finances,” Flannery said. “But we know it’s bad.” Flannery cited the city’s pension crisis and its drop in overall revenue as two of the many issues San Diego is facing in its current financial crisis. He said schools are just a small part of that. “Right now, the mayor needs the $2.1 billion much more than the school district because the mayor is headed right into a full-blown financial crisis,” Flannery said. Flannery does not deny that city schools need money for improvement; he just thinks that this election is not the time to do so. “The city — and therefore the taxpayer — are going to be hit with a bond somewhere, and the schools should wait,” Flannery said. “When you are looking at finances, you have to look at the whole thing and you have to make hard choices.” Another reason Flannery said voters should vote “no” on Proposition S is that the main beneficiaries of the proposition are builders and contractors. He said the numerous contracts awarded if the bond passes would serve as a bailout to the construction industry. Proposition S may be one of the most tightly contested measures on this year’s ballot, despite its less than prominent position. “Go to the bottom of the ballot,” Tate said. “We’re afraid of drop-off.”