Last chance for public schools

It's no coincidence that our Las Virgenes and Oak Park public schools are among the best in Southern California. The quality of schools goes hand-in-hand with how affluent an area is. It's not that the state apportions higher revenues to the well-heeled districts. If anything, they get less.

Our local schools are excellent because families pay for them through add-on activity fees, program fees, school supply surcharges and, yes, higher school taxes.

Take time to calculate exactly what you spend each year on your child's public school education. It isn't cheap.

On June 6, voters are being asked to increase their taxes once again to pay for three bond measures-one in Las Virgenes and two in Oak Park-that upgrade campus buildings, classrooms and technology infrastructure. The Acorn previously endorsed the school bonds, mainly because we know the money is earmarked for aging facilities, not programs and salaries. We also like that there will be strict citizen oversight when it comes time to spend the money.

The need for modernization is pressing, but at the same time we wonder if the chase for the latest computer technology will ever end. We're hooked on gadgets and can't fall behind. The days of chalk and blackboards are almost gone. Now we need data ports, wireless hubs and other high-tech measures. The bonds will satisfy that need, but what happens in five years when the technology changes again?

In Oak Park, the B6 facilities bond has raised a few eyebrows because it calls for the construction of a new $3.4 million high school administration office and a $18.5 million "integrated learning center" at a time when district enrollment is on the decline. There's also a new cardio fitness lab for Media Creek Middle School. If anything, the district needs to think about cost-saving retrenchment, not costly expansion. (In the near future, perhaps one of the elementary schools could be closed and used for other purposes. The district enrollment at Las Virgenes also has slowed.)

We do like the new library and multipurpose room that would be built at Brookside Elementary school. The need is real.

Visit www.opusd.k12.ca.us to learn about the other projects that are planned. The Las Virgenes Measure G website is www.voteyesonmeasureg.com.

On balance, the June 6 school bonds are needed and your vote is requested. But after several tax increases in recent years, we hope these are the last for a while. It's time for the school districts to make do with what they have and not keep going back to the well.