There's no doubt about it. The March 2 ballot asks Californians to accept a sizeable increase in their debt burden.

Proposition 57, a one-time measure to cover the shortfalls in recent budgets, would authorize the borrowing of $15 billion. It is a big number, though some of the proceeds will replace existing debt.

Given the state's immediate distress, it represents the best-available solution, but no one is pretending that it is a happy alternative. Proposition 57 remains a bad idea whose time has come because all the other choices are worse.

Proposition 55, on the other hand, is a good idea -- a $12.3 billion bond measure that finances school construction and school rehabilitation in the same way that has proved so successful in California for so many decades.

Unlike Proposition 57, which replaces money already spent, Proposition 55 represents new money that will cycle through the economies of every community.

Of course, Proposition 55 is not just an investment in new jobs and expanded economic activity. Proposition 55 invests in education, which means it is an investment in children, social, political and economic opportunity, and future prosperity.

Sonoma County voters won't have to look far to identify the benefits.

The completion of the renovation of Darwin Hall at Sonoma State University depends on the $3 million generated from the passage of Proposition 55.

Expansion of the Petaluma campus of Santa Rosa Junior College, a facility that filled to capacity in near-record time, will be financed by $26.1 million from 55, matching a like amount from the junior college bond measure already approved by voters.

The bond proposal also promises $5.8 million to transform Plover Library into a student services center.

As for elementary, middle and high schools, 21 Sonoma County districts are eligible for construction and renovation grants that could total as much as $60.4 million.

In a few cases, the money will go to new classrooms. In more cases, the money will renovate old school buildings with electrical, plumbing and heating systems that aren't keeping pace with 21st century demands.

This bonded indebtedness represents an appropriate way to finance new facilities, even as many of these schools systems struggle with paying operating costs which need to be paid from recurring revenues. Bond money cannot -- and should not -- be spent on salaries and heating bills for reasons that ought to be plain enough in a state that recently let spending outstrip revenue.

California continues to need more and better schools because no task is more important. The Press Democrat recommends a yes vote on Proposition 55.