Opinion: School bonds can be source of scandal
By Dan Walters, Sacramento Bee
Over the last four decades, California has borrowed nearly $45 billion via bonds to finance construction projects for the state’s K-12 school districts.
Repaying the loans with interest has roughly doubled the face value of those bonds. And as Jerry Brown winds down his second governorship, he wants to change the practice.
Public school enrollment has been dropping and is likely to drop even more, Brown says, adding that the state is still paying out $2 billion a year to service old school bonds and construction money has been doled out unfairly, with little regard to true need.