Kraft is the governing board president of the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District. He has taught more than 20 years at community colleges, including Grossmont and Cuyamaca colleges.

At the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, we are perpetually waving the banner of open access to higher learning, and as evidenced by our crowded campuses, many have heard our message of universal opportunity.

But this laying out of the welcome mat to one and all comes at a cost. Student enrollments have exceeded building capacities. With the support of voters who recognize our colleges as the invaluable resources that they are, the cost of new structures and the modernizing of existing facilities can be addressed with both state and local funds.

Proposition R, the November 2002 local bond measure widely embraced by voters, is funding renovation and construction projects on both college campuses, but the facilities needs remain great. As promised at the time we asked for voter support of Proposition R, we will continue to pursue every source of funding to augment and stretch the local bond monies to accommodate increasing enrollments.

State matching funds

One funding source is Proposition 55, the $12.3 billion K-16 Facilities Bond Act on the statewide March 2 ballot, which includes matching funds for local school bonds. For our district, it means $20 million for new facilities. These dollars, if approved by voters, will pay for the new digital arts labs to serve the 17,000 students at Grossmont College and communication arts building for the 8,000 at Cuyamaca College.

Grossmont College's Proposition 55-funded addition will include a digital multimedia lab designed to merge the traditional fine arts, music, video and cinema. Cuyamaca's new facility will house the following disciplines: English/English as a second language; fine and professional arts; speech/American sign language; performing arts; and astronomy.

Ours, of course, is but one of the scores of school districts that would benefit from the passage of Proposition 55, which allots $2.3 billion to fund facilities for the three segments of public higher education – the California community colleges, the California State University and the University of California – through 2006. The largest portion of the funding pie – $10 billion – is earmarked for K-12, including $2.4 billion for critically overcrowded schools and $2.2 billion to fix rundown and outdated schools.

The local benefit of the bond measure to K-16 campuses is substantial, totaling nearly $1.2 billion for San Diego County schools. Targeting funds where the need is greatest, Proposition 55 seeks to remedy the deplorable conditions endured by more than a million California children being forced to learn in schools where bathrooms don't work and the roofs leak.

San Diego Unified would garner nearly $200 million, including $92 million for classroom and schoolyard retrofits, in state matching funds to supplement Proposition MM, the local bond measure passed by voters in 1998.

For higher education, in addition to the $20 million for the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College District, Proposition 55 would provide nearly $71 million to UC San Diego in 2004-05 for state-funded capital projects. San Diego State University would receive nearly $3.4 million to provide equipment for the new social sciences building that the university will break ground on later this year. More than $4 million would go to the Southwestern Community College District for equipment to complete the future Otay Mesa center and a new student services center.

At the high-school level, the Grossmont Union High School District is seeking passage of its own facilities bond measure, Proposition H, to raise $274 million for critically needed repairs and upgrades to its aging schools. Passage of the local bond would qualify GUHSD for approximately $120 million in Proposition 55 monies, further reducing the cost of essential school upgrades to local taxpayers.

Good for the economy

Besides addressing facilities needs, Proposition 55, whose supporters include the California Business Roundtable and the California Chamber of Commerce, will create hundreds of thousands of new jobs and add billions to local economies across the state.

Voters can support Proposition 55 with confidence that strict accountability measures will ensure funds get spent directly on school repair and construction. Independent audits, cost controls and annual reviews will provide strict accountability over every school project.

Called "fiscally responsible" by the California Taxpayers' Association, Proposition 55 also has the backing of the state treasurer, who describes the measure as "an important and prudent investment in the infrastructure needed to sustain California's economic growth." And as a general obligation bond that will be repaid from state revenues over 30 years, Proposition 55 will not increase or raise new taxes.

The explosive growth in enrollment that has earned California's classrooms the ignoble ranking of third most overcrowded in the nation is expected to continue. Whether schools will have the room to accommodate the growth, or whether they will continue to fall in national rankings of class size and academic achievement, are perplexing issues.

With the support of the public, California's schools can reverse the current state of morass and return to the revered status they once enjoyed. Past measures such as the statewide bond act approved by voters in 2002 helped schools tackle a backlog of long-overdue building and renovation projects, but those funds are now allocated and the needs persist. Please join parents, teachers, business and community leaders, and taxpayer advocacy groups in voting "yes" for Proposition 55 on March 2. It's a chance to fix our local schools and provide a learning environment conducive to academic success.