Proposition Summary

EDUCATION. VOUCHERS. INITIATIVE CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT. • Amends California Constitution to enable parents to choose a child's school by requiring State to provide a voucher for every school-age child equal to at least 50 percent of prior fiscal year per pupil spending for K-12 public schools. • Requires Legislature to establish procedures whereby public schools may become independent voucher-redeeming schools. Vouchers may be redeemed by such schools and by qualifying private schools. • Authorizes required academic testing. • Limits new regulation of private and voucher-redeeming schools. • Voucher expenditures and specified savings count toward education's existing constitutional minimum funding guarantee. Summary of Legislative Analyst's Estimate of Net State and Local Government Fiscal Impact: • Long-term (by the fifth year) net fiscal effect on state funding of K-12 schools is largely unknown. Annual impact likely to range from costs of about $800 million to savings of about $1 billion, depending on the number of pupils who shift from public schools to schools that accept vouchers and legislative decisions on funding of public schools, • Short-term (first few years) state costs averaging hundreds of millions of dollars annually. • Debt service savings to the state and school districts potentially in excess of $100 million annually after 10-20 years, resulting from reduced need for construction of public schools.

Proposition Number

174

Year

1993

Document Type

Proposition

Pass/Fail

Fail

Popular Vote Results

Y: 1561514; A: 30.4; N: 3567833; B: 69.5

Election Type

Special Election

Proposition Type

Initiative constitutional

For Author

William J. Bennett, U.S. Seretary of Education, 1985-1988; H. Glenn Davis, Associate California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, 1970-1978; Carmela Garnica, School Board Member, Palo Verde Unified School District

Against Author

Charity Webb, President, California School Boards Association; Del Weber, President, California Teachers Association; Norman T. Allen, Chairman, American Association of Retired Persons; California State Legislative Committee

Rebuttal Author

Gray Davis, California State Controller; Kathryn Dronenburg, Member, State Board of Education; Dezie Woods-Jones, Vice-President, Committee to Protect the Political Rights of Minorities --

Rebuttal Against Author

Lewis K. Uhler, Chairman, Center for the California Taxpayer; Joseph F. Alibrandi, Chairman, Education Task Force; California Business Roundtable, 1987-1990; Marci Delgado, Teacher and Director of College Counseling, Roosevelt High School

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