SACRAMENTO – A broad coalition is mounting a well-financed campaign to pass $12.3 billion in school bonds on the March 2 ballot, saying Proposition 55 is needed to repair run-down schools and ease overcrowding.

A number of school districts in San Diego County are banking on passage of the measure to match local school bonds: most of the $900 million already approved in nine districts and $300 million more on the March ballot in three districts.

"How can we expect our kids to learn in these shameful conditions?" states a coalition mailer with cover photos showing broken bathrooms, leaky roofs, unsafe electrical wiring and overcrowded classrooms.

The coalition of business, teacher and school administrator associations plans a multimillion-dollar campaign with statewide television ads to pass Proposition 55.

After narrowly rejecting two proposals totaling $1.9 billion in 1994, voters have approved increasingly larger state school-construction bonds: $3 billion in 1996, $9.2 billion in 1998 and $13 billion in 2002.

Some of the business groups that advocate increased spending on California's public works, which have not kept pace with population growth, regard school construction as a potential success story.

In addition to increased state spending, voters approved a business-backed initiative in 2000 that lowered the threshold for approving local school bonds to 55 percent of the vote from two-thirds.

Since then, voters have approved 165 local school bond issues totaling $18.9 billion, said Bob Blattner of School Services of California. He said that 88 of them worth $8.9 billion would not have passed without the lower threshold.

The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst's Office says local districts need new schools for nearly 1 million students and modernization of schools housing a similar number, costing an estimated $16 billion.

The coalition that supports Proposition 55 is concerned about weak support for the proposed $12.3 billion bond issue.

Earlier this month, a Field Poll showed 52 percent of likely voters support the measure; the Public Policy Institute of California showed the bonds with just 50 percent support.

By contrast, the institute noted, early support for the successful $13 billion school bonds issue two years ago ranged from 59 percent to 63 percent. The measure was approved with 59 percent of the vote.

One of the obstacles facing Proposition 55 is that it appears on the ballot with Proposition 57, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposal for $15 billion in fiscal-recovery bonds.

Voters are being asked to approve a record amount of borrowing at a time when the state budget is awash in red ink. The state's fiscal crisis was a major issue in the election that recalled former Gov. Gray Davis.

Schwarzenegger wanted the school bonds moved to the November election, presumably improving the chances that voters would approve the fiscal-recovery bonds he says consolidate and refinance the state's debt.

But the school groups backing Proposition 55 refused to move the bond measure, even though the school bonds automatically will be placed on the November ballot for a second chance if rejected by voters in March.

California has a moderate amount of long-term bond debt. Payment on currently authorized bonds would be 4.9 percent of the general fund in fiscal year 2005-06, below what fiscal experts see as a prudent maximum of 6 percent.

If the school bonds pass, it would increase the payment to 5.3 percent of the general fund, said Brad Williams of the Legislative Analyst's Office. The governor's bond would bump the payment to 6.4 to 6.9 percent, Williams said.

As with the past three school bond measures, Proposition 55 would provide $10 billion for grades kindergarten through high school and $2.3 billion for community colleges and the university systems.

Opponents of Proposition 55 prefer pay-as-you-go financing, making annual appropriations for school construction to avoid interest payments that are expected to double the cost of the bonds as they are repaid over several decades.

Those critics also want to reform state regulations they say inflate the cost of school construction by, among other things, requiring contractors to pay workers the equivalent of labor union wages.

They also question the urgent need for more state school bonds, noting that $1.4 billion of the $13 billion bond issue approved two years ago has not yet been allocated to local districts.

"Obviously, we don't have the big money of the special interests that benefit from having the bond passed," said Mike Spence of the California Republican Assembly, a grass-roots group. "But we will do what we can to inform voters about how these kind of bonds hurt taxpayers."

Critics also contend that schools in Los Angeles would get a disproportionate share of the proposed school bonds.

The ballot pamphlet argument against Proposition 55 states: "The drafters cleverly set aside more than a quarter of the bond funds for Los Angeles Unified School District," which has 12 percent of the state's students.

The opponents base their claim about the Los Angeles schools on $2.4 billion of the bond money that would be set aside for "critically overcrowded schools," which are mostly in urban areas such as Los Angeles. But that pot of money would not be divvied up until after the bond measure passes.

In a similar set-aside of $1.7 billion in the previous state bond issue, Los Angeles Unified received about $1 billion. The rest was split among 13 other school districts, with $75 million going to San Diego Unified.

The critically overcrowded category, based mainly on the number of students per acre, gives schools more time to apply for state bond funds but doesn't make it easier for them to qualify.

Urban schools districts say they need those separate funds because the otherwise first-come-first-served bond allocation process puts them at a disadvantage.

The first-in-line system favors suburban districts, which have undeveloped land and do not face as many legal battles over expansion, toxic contamination and other so-called landlocked issues that urban areas must grapple with.

Los Angeles Unified filed a lawsuit contending that it did not get a fair share of the $9.2 billion state bond issue in 1998. That led to the creation of the critically-overcrowded provision, which was debated at length in the Legislature.

With its bond funds, the state pays 50 percent of the cost of building schools and 60 percent of the cost of modernizing and improving existing schools.

Tom Robinson of the San Diego County Office of Education estimated that state matching funds are sought for at least 75 percent of the $900 million in local bonds approved by voters in nine districts in recent elections.

In the March election, the Rancho Santa Fe elementary district is seeking approval of a $4.8 million bond issue and Santee elementary is seeking approval of a parcel tax.

The coalition backing Proposition 55 held a rally on Wednesday for a $274 million bond issue placed on the March ballot by Grossmont Union High School District, which is seeking $122 million in matching state bond funds.

"These are hard times for California, but we cannot ignore the education of our future (generation)," Ginger Hovenic of the San Diego Business Roundtable for Education said at the rally.