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# The case against 76
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/the-case-against-76-editor/
- Published: 2005-11-05T16:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-23T08:07:22.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Malibu, #archive-import

*By Barbara Inatsugu Santa Monica*

The California State PTA believes that Proposition 76 would be so damaging to public education in California that its state board of managers voted to focus the organization’s special election efforts on defeating it. For that reason, the PTA has not taken a position on any other measure in this election.

Unions and Democrats are not the only opponents of Proposition 76\. It has been difficult to get that message out because the supporters of the proposition would have you believe that only unions and Democrats are opposed. In fact, the California State PTA, the Santa Monica-Malibu Council of PTAs, the League of Women Voters of California and the California School Boards Association are all strongly and actively opposed to it.

Under Proposition 76, the funding guarantee for education, established by Proposition 98, would be fundamentally changed. Impartial, nonpartisan analyses published by the Legislative Analysts Office, the California Budget Project, School Services of California and the USC-California Policy Institute all say that enactment of Proposition 76 would decrease the amount of funding allocated for public education.

In fact, passage of Proposition 76 would result in a permanent loss to our schools of approximately $4 billion every year. This loss would be the equivalent of $600 per student per year, or $15,000 per classroom. At a time when California’s spending for education is already embarrassingly low compared to other states, Proposition 76 would not only lower education funding levels, but would keep them there, ensuring that school funding in California would remain mediocre at best.

California’s children deserve the best we can give them. That means voting “no” on Proposition 76.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on November 5, 2005.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/110505.pdf?ref=smdp.com)