BILL SEEKS TO BAN USE OF SCHOOL BOND MONEY FOR iPADS

By Stephen Ceasar, Los Angeles Times | http://lat.ms/1j29fZh

Students in Karen Finkel's class at Broadacres Elementary school in Carson explore the possibilities with their new LAUSD provided iPads in August. (Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times / August 27, 2013)

February 14, 2014, 5:40 p.m.  ::  A new bill introduced Friday would prohibit California school districts from using voter-approved construction bonds for non-facility related items  -- a move spurred by the Los Angeles Unified School District’s $1-billion plan to purchase iPads for every student, teacher and administrator.

L.A. Unified’s iPad project, launched last year, is funded with one-time, school construction bonds paid back over about 25 years.  The plan, which includes network upgrades at schools, is expected to consume all the technology funds available though the bonds.

Assemblyman Curt Hagman (R-Chino Hills),  who authored the bill and has been vocal in his opposition to the iPad program, said the public is led to believe that bond money will be used to build new schools or refurbish aging ones and not for other, unrelated purposes.

“It is important that construction bond money be used for school facilities, and not for things like iPads,” Hagman said.

Los Angeles Unified Supt. John Deasy has been steadfast in asserting that the technology upgrade is an essential academic initiative.

Deasy could not be reached for comment.

The bill would prohibit districts from purchasing “instructional materials” – including “textbooks, technology-based materials and other non-facility related items with a short usable life.”

Those items should be purchased with money allocated from the state for those purposes. “That’s what they should be buying this stuff with – not long-term debt money,” he said.

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BILL NUMBER: AB 1754 INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hagman FEBRUARY 14, 2014 An act to add Section 15267 to the Education Code, relating to school bonds. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST AB 1754, as introduced, Hagman. School bonds: instructional materials. The California Constitution limits the maximum amount of any ad valorem tax on real property to 1% of the full cash value of the property except for ad valorem taxes or special assessments that pay the interest and redemption charges on certain bonded indebtedness, including bonded indebtedness incurred by a school district, community college district, or county office of education for the construction, reconstruction, rehabilitation, or replacement of school facilities, including the furnishing and equipping of school facilities, or the acquisition or lease of real property for school facilities, approved by 55% of the voters if the proposition includes specified accountability requirements. This bill would prohibit proceeds from the sale of bonds authorized and issued pursuant to the exception described above to be used to purchase instructional materials, as defined. Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no. THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS: SECTION 1. Section 15267 is added to the Education Code, to read: 15267. Proceeds from the sale of bonds authorized and issued pursuant to paragraph (3) of subdivision (b) of Section 1 of Article XIII A and subdivision (b) of Section 18 of Article XVI of the California Constitution shall not be used to purchase instructional materials, as defined in subdivision (h) of Section 60010.