If passed, Proposition 55 would pay for new schools, fix leaky roofs and repair broken restrooms.

Right now, the state needs more than 22,000 classrooms to relieve crowding and deal with growth, officials say.

But growth has a price: about $12.3 billion and another $12.4 billion in interest on a bond that would be one of the largest in California's history.

Proposition 55 would provide matching state funds for local school projects, according to greatest need. It would also help build new community college classrooms and improve the Cal State University and University of California systems.

But opponents of the bond, which include the 60-Plus Association and the National Tax Limitation Committee, say Proposition 55 will put the financially troubled state in a worse position by accruing debt and cutting state services.

"If we spent just 5 percent of the next five budgets on school construction, we would raise twice as much money as this bond," critics of the initiative wrote in the voter's handbook. "We could build twice as many schools and save taxpayers more than $12 billion in interest"

But school districts, including the Rialto Unified School District, say they can't wait. Sorely in need of a new middle school and elementary, Rialto's five middle schools are crowded. In need of $32 million for both projects, the district is depending on Proposition 55 to pass, administrators said.

Enrollment in Rialto Unified is 30,431, and almost 8,000 of the students are in middle school.

"We're very much impacted in our middle-school level," district spokeswoman Marilyn Cardosi said. "I hope the community will go to the polls and vote, read all of the propositions very closely and support our schools."

Debra Bradley, superintendent of the Fontana Unified School District, said Proposition 55 would make her district eligible for about $200 million in state funds.

The bond would allow the construction of five more elementary schools, two middle schools and expansion of the continuation school, Bradley said. Without it, the district could not build the new schools, she said.

Other school districts, including Redlands Unified and Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified, are growing just as rapidly.

And like the other districts, money for them is scarce.

"We need new schools desperately," said Donna West, board president in Redlands Unified. "We're in the process of building our third high school but to continue with the building we need Prop. 55."

The district has about 20,000 students and its projected annual growth is roughly 2 percent, she said.

"We keep inching up," West said. "We're in the process of building our fourth middle school and we already have over 3,000 in each of our two high schools."

Yucaipa-Calimesa Joint Unified, which currently has about 9,000 students, will need several new schools in the next two to five years.

Officials said they want to start planning for a new elementary school that would open within the next three years and for a second elementary school in 2010. By then, Mesa View Middle School, which is under construction in Calimesa, would need to be converted to a high school. Planning for a third elementary school and another middle school should be under way.

Another school is planned within the Chapman Heights area. Land studies have started and the district will be seeking funding for the project within the year.

"We're very concerned that if (Proposition 55) doesn't pass we won't have that money, and then we'd be looking at some type of local initiative," said Patty Moore, president of the district's board of trustees. "And if it would certainly devastate our district if it didn't pass."