California voters on March 2 will be asked to make an investment in the state's future. Proposition 55, a $12.3 billion education bond, is a measure that makes sense now and for generations to come.

Proposition 55 is the second piece of a bond package to rehabilitate and construct schools, colleges and universities around the state. It would finance the state's share of the cost of classrooms, libraries and laboratories. The interest and principal of the bonds would be repaid over 30 years out of the state's general fund.

There's no doubting the need for this investment. The state has pending applications to build new schools for 1 million students in growing districts and for modernization work -- new roofs, wiring, bathrooms -- on existing schools that serve another 1.1 million. The money provided by Proposition 55 would match dollars that have been raised by local school bonds and developer fees.

Passage of the bond could bring an estimated $1.9 billion to San Joaquin Valley school districts to cope with growth and the deterioration of its hundreds of aging schools. It would also provide $90 million in library funding at California State University, Fresno; almost $54 million for the State Center Community College District; and almost $11 million to the University of California, Merced.

California's economic future is as the leader of the knowledge and information economy, and that takes a commitment to education that must look past the state's current budgetary problems. The jobs of the future will come when private investment in those industries is drawn here by the public's investment in the research and educated workers they need. Like a homeowner taking out a mortgage to buy a new house or a business issuing bonds to build a new factory, prudent governments borrow for that kind of long-term investment in the future, paying for them over time. Proposition 55 makes sense because it invests in the capital projects that would underpin California's future prosperity.

Voters should say "yes" to classrooms, laboratories and libraries for our children. We recommend passage of Proposition 55.