Bill that could give UC system $2 billion added to March ballot

A bond on the March ballot would provide $2 billion to the University of California.

Assembly Bill 40, which was approved by the California Legislature on Sept. 14, would allocate one-time funds of $15 billion to the California Public School system if passed, including the UC system, the California State University system, community colleges and K-12 schools.

The money will ultimately be allocated toward improving school infrastructure and technology, said Assemblymember Patrick O’Donnell, who represents the 70th District. O’Donnell introduced the bond following his experiences teaching for over 20 years.

“This bond is good for California students, and it’s good for California’s economy because it modernizes and upgrades school facilities at all levels of the California education spectrum,” O’Donnell said.

The bond would allocate $9 billion to California’s K-12 public schools, $2 billion to the community college system, $2 billion to the CSU system and $2 billion to the UC system, according to an article by EdSource. This bill would be one of the UC’s greatest sources of funding since 2006, according to a statement by UC President Janet Napolitano.

The statement also said that the bond would help modernize equipment and facilities at all California public schools and would benefit the overall safety of its students.

Gregg Goldman, vice chancellor and chief financial officer at UCLA, said he thinks the bond has a high likelihood of being passed on the March ballot.

He added public education funding has historically been separated into two bills: one for the K-12 public school system and one for higher education. He said he thinks merging them is a good idea since people typically support K-12 funding over higher education funding. Goldman said it has been almost 13 years since the UC system received a bond.

Aidan Arasasingham, government relations committee chair of the UC Student Association and a third-year global studies student, said he has been working closely with the UC system to promote this bond because of the critical need for it.

Arasasingham said if the bond passes it will give critical support for earthquake safety and maintenance projects that have not received the support they need. A seismic assessment initiative released by UCLA in August found that several buildings on campus were found to pose serious risk to life.

“If this bond passes in March, I know that it would give UC and UCLA really vital funds to support seismic safety, deferred maintenance and new constructs on campus,” Arasasingham said.

However, Goldman said there is a debate over how the funds will be allocated among the 10 UC campuses. The UC campuses that are in more critical need of funding, like UC Berkeley, are being considered as a top priority for funding, he added.

Goldman said he thinks UCLA students and faculty have to be as vocal as possible to make sure that UCLA’s needs are represented and fulfilled as well.

“We need to be in Oakland to make sure that our needs are represented at the table as well,” Goldman said.