Breaking down Fresno Unified School District’s Bond Measure

don't exactly understand. This is the governing entity that oversees Fresno City College, Maderra College, closest community college Readley College. So it's it's almost like think of it like a massive school district, like a public school district, but it's governing community colleges. Okay, so they've got a big bond measure. I think it's in the seven hundred million dollar range.

Other than State Center Community College District, the biggest of all these individual K through twelve school district bond measures locally is Fresno Unified. Fresno Unified, which has a five hundred million dollars bond measure proposal for Measure H. Measure H is what it's called. If you live within the Fresno Unified School District territories, you will be voting for

or against this bond measure, all right. And there's a piece in GV wire that written by Nancy Price that lists out the different projects that Fresno City wants to do, wants to accomplish with all of this Measure H funding. So I'm curious to read through it because let's also let's just understand this. Why is Measure H for President Unified on the ballot. Why is Measure A for Close Unified simultaneously on the ballot for Closes unified residents. Why

is there a bond measure for Singer Unified. Why is there a bond measure for Central Unified. Why does every single school district and all the community college districts, why do they all have bond measures on the ballot right now? They have bond measures on the ballot right now. Because when Gavin Newsom was putting together the state budget, teachers' unions got mad that there wasn't enough money to their

liking spent on education. Newsom was trying to cut things because revenues were not keeping up with the rate of our spending. We were facing a massive deficit. So Newsom was I don't know that he was actually cutting anything. I'm guessing he was just lessening the rate of increase. But Newsom was trying to deal with the fiscal realities of the situation. The teachers' unions got really mad at him.

They had negotiations, and what they came up with was Gavin Newsom saying, all right, well, then what I'll do then is I'll support a statewide bond measure which is now also on our ballots, Proposition two. So Proposition two is a statewide ten billion dollar bond measure that all of us are going to vote up or down on ten billion dollars to go towards K through twelve school

districts and also community college districts. However, those K through twelve school districts and community college districts can get more money if they raise Bond Measure five funding themselves, then they can get matching funds from Prop two. If Prop two passes, and if their local bond measure passes or go, every single school district in the region has a bond measure. The capstone that the largest single one in the whole

region is Measure H from Presno Unified. So I hear that and I think, well, okay, we just did a round of bond measures like this four years ago, first of all, and you're only doing these local bond measures because this state money is on the table. You're not doing it because it's not an organic, you know, response to exigen circumstances or to some emerging need. You're just doing this because state money happens to be on the table.

You're taking advantage of this opportunity that is presenting itself that one year ago today, I don't think any of them anticipated would be happening. So when I hear from Clovis Unify, like the justification before the Close Unified School Board voted to before the Close Unified Board of Trustees rather voted to promote its local Close Unified bond measure A, the kinds of things they were talking about seemed to

me patently facially ridiculous. It was stuff like, oh, well, we need the funding to finish Clovis South High School. All right? Really, you started Close South High School without knowing where you were going to get the funding to finish it. Did you actually do that? That doesn't seem to make a lot of sense. Oh, we need it for ongoing maintenance and bringing buildings up to code. Ongoing maintenance isn't somehow already part of your existing budget like

they get existing revenue. It's not like they they don't get any revenue outside of years where they have bond measures. So I was extremely skeptical of the different lists, the list of things that Close Unified was purportedly doing. Let's now look at this gv wire article written by Nancy Price from gv wire about the kinds of things Presney Unified is going to build. The revised project list for Fresney Unified school districts, Measure H contains major renovations at Kalawa, Norseman,

and Pyle Elementary schools and Presne High School. Adds eighty A compliance, adds eighty A back compliance bathroom renovations at fourteen elementary schools, and adds funding for major renovation projects at several schools. But to cover the cost of adding library and cafeteria renovations at Centennial Elementary, unspecified renovations at Kirk Elementary. Why are any of the renovations unspecified? Specify them. That's the point we're about to work we're already voting

on this stuff. I think early voting has already started for a lot of people. And the bathroom renovations. District staffers trimmed thirty one million for turf, track and lights projects at Edison and Hoover High Schools and fifteen million for the Aviation Academy at Chandler Airport, but the district is shifting funds from other areas to the aviation academy project. However, the list retains nine million dollars for another new career

technical education program, an agricultural farm facility in the Sunnyside region. Okay, anything that's going towards vocational work or agwork like do that Jesuise project. Funding would increase by two point one million in six of the seven regions, but would drop

by twelve point six million in the Edison region. So it's talking about basically they're sort of moving money around in different ways, with fifty million dollars left over for deferred maintenance district wide, so basically they're breaking it up by regions. McLain would get one hundred million dollars of funding. Roosevelt we'll get ninety seven point four million dollars. Tresno

High we get seventy six point three million. Hooever we get sixty seven point five million, Edison we get sixty one point eight million, Bullard we'll get thirty two point seven million. Sunnyside we get fourteen point three million. The biggest project would be forty four point eight million to rebuild Kalwa Elementary School in southeast Fresno with a new classroom, building new English language classroom, building new cafeteria, relocating admin offices,

and building a library. That's nearly four million more than the district spent on the brand new one Felipe Herrera Elementary School that opened in twenty twenty two. So they have other projects that they've got, and I guess it seems again I question what was the plan without this infusion of cash. Like there's a lot of talk about eight A compliance stuff. It isn't eighty A compliance stuff

like sort of part of ongoing maintenance. Now I fully acknowledge eighty A compliance is a huge pain in the butt. And there's all kinds of tiki taky things that can happen with you know where EIGHTYA compliance can change over time in ways that don't even seem obvious, and it can be pricey. But again, it's not like the school district doesn't have ongoing revenue streams. They get ongoing tax revenue.

So if it's talk about renovating existing buildings, I guess I'm just curious as to how many of these projects were already going to go ahead with existing funding, How many of these projects are only going to be accomplished with Measure H funding. How necessary are these projects really? They also talk about the way they're allocating the spending. Measure H is different than previous bond measures for two reasons. The board had previously decided to look at projects through

an equity lens. We all love that word equity providing funds to schools with the greatest needs, no matter which region they are in. And as part of the contract negotiated last fall with the President Teachers Association, the union is collaborating with district staffers on how to allocate spending for one third of the measure revenues, or one hundred and sixty seven million dollars of it. Now, I guess now, usually when you hear equity, it means some kind of

liberal nonsense. If equity here just means, hey, the less well funded areas of the district should get most of this money because they need more money. Okay, I guess that makes sense. I find I do not see necessarily the benefit of having the teachers union overseeing a third of the spend. That's such a weird provision. The teachers' union gets to collaborate with district staffers on how to allocate spending, but only for a third of it. I wonder what kind of a concession that is. That is

that that strikes me as really curious. I mean, I don't trust the teachers' unions as far as I can

throw them. I find it interesting that this was part of negotiations that the teachers' unions, looking into the future, said okay, well, they're going to have you know, bond measure funding at some point in the future, during the time frame of this CBA that we're of this you know, collectively bargain agreement that we're signing here, we want to have a say on how some of it is spent, so we're going to we can collaborate, but only on

a third of the spending. I mean, if they're just collaborating and not deciding why not have them collaborate on the whole amount of spending. And if you can only trust them with a I mean, if you're in trusting them with a third, that either means you don't really trust their input on anything, so it should be zero, or you trust and value their input, in which case, why not have their input on all five hundred million.

It seems like a bizarre what a bizarre provision that is, And it is interesting to me how the Bullard region basically gets the absolute shortest end of the stick. But I guess if you're looking at it in terms of okay, well, Bullard and Sunnyside get the absolute short ends of the stick. I guess though, if you're looking at it through they said, we're going to do this through an equity lens, so we'll give the most money to the regions of President

Unified that needed the most. Well, then I guess that kind of makes sense. Bullard is there's certainly Bullard and Sunnyside are probably the wealthier parts of as a Unified. Now, I guess the thing that makes me most nervous about all this is the timing people are getting their ballots mailed out to them that people have their ballots already.

Early voting has already started, and it seems like the President Unified Board of Trustees doesn't really exactly one hundred percent have total agreement necessarily about how all this money should be spent and where. Their article says, the project lists for Measure H, the largest bond measure in Presdent Unified's history, has still not been finalized, even though ballots were mailed out to voters on Monday, two days before the board is scheduled to meet and vote on the project.

So the Board is supposed to meet and vote on these projects tomorrow Wednesday. Voters got their ballots in the mail Monday, so people are expected to vote up or down on Measure H when we still haven't decided exactly where all the five hundred million dollars is supposed to go.

Board President Susan Wittrop, who represents the Boullard region, said Monday she didn't know why staff pulled the project list from the September twenty eighth board meeting agenda, but was told by Superintendent Misty her that the bond consultant would

quit if there was any opposition from board members. Well, then let the bond consultant quest what kind of a bizarre what kind of a bizarre answer is that if there was any opposition from board members who died and made this guy the pope or gal Wittrop said she has many questions about the revisions that were posted late Friday and has asked the staff to post her questions and their answers on the district website for board meeting q and as nothing has been posted by a two

pm Monday, so we get these proposed revisions on Friday. Ballots were shipped to people Monday. The board is supposed to vote on it on Wednesday. All this while you know, this is all in the context, by the way, of a school district that already gets funding even without its bond measure funding, and a school district that I just don't think deserves any kind of measure of grace. Here, two thirds of the kids in the school district can't read at grade level, can't do math at grade level.

It's a school district that is failing massively at its basic tasks. Basic task that doesn't require fancy school buildings. Teaching math and teaching kids how to read hasn't changed in the last one hundred years when we return. Just a reminder about how much this whole thing will actually cost.

Next on the John Girardi Show, in going over this proposed project list for Measure eights, for Measure H, which is the Fresno Unified School Bond measure, you know, one hundred million dollars for the McLean region, ninety seven point four million for the Roosevelt region, seventy six point three million for Fresno High rebuilding, this elementary school rebuilding that

blah blah blah blah blah. Let's remember the actual cost of this whole thing, because Measure H and all of these local bond measures are and I will repeat myself on this, probably on several shows through election day. I will continue to beat this drum. Measure H is a bond. What is a bond? If you're sitting in your car and you can't define it, then you probably shouldn't vote for it. Okay, But let me define it for you

so you can understand. A bond is a loan to a municipal governmental entity like a school district, like a city, like a county, like the state, Like any loan, you need to pay it back. But A school district doesn't generate its own revenue. It doesn't sell a product or a service. The only way school districts get money is through taxpayers. Taxpayers like you. If you vote for Measure H, you're voting to increase your taxes. You are voting to

increase your property taxes in all likelihood. Oh but but I just rent an apartment in frozen Unified. That won't affect me, says someone who was born yesterday or who doesn't understand that. Hey, don't you think maybe your landlord might pass on the cost of higher rent, pass on the cost of his higher property taxes in the forum of higher rent to you. Yes, it will eventually get you. If you live, you will pay more. It might not be called a tax, it might be called higher rent,

but you will pay for it. So, yeah, you will pay more in taxes. And the five hundred million dollars that the school district gets right away great for the school district. But guess how much you have to pay over the lifetime of the loan. Because again there's this little thing called interest. It means you don't just pay back five hundred million dollars, you're paying back more than five hundred million dollars. That's the only reason they gave you the loan in the first place, is so that

they could make more money off the back end. So you then wind up paying back almost a billion dollars in taxes. You the tax pairs of PRESNY Unified, will pay almost a billion dollars back. And that's just how bonds work. It is the opposite of delayed gratification. It's eating your cake now and paying for it later. It's

borrowing money. It's borrowing money that you don't have. And I mean, maybe for local school districts, you could argue that, you know, these are investments that are going to last longer than the life of the loan. If we, you know, rebuild a falling apart, decrepit elementary school and we can completely rebuild it, all right, that's nice. But we're also saying, oh, we need it for updates and renovation eighty A Compliance and renovation No. Eighty A, compliance and upkeep of buildings

that should be paid for with your ongoing revenue. The idea that you need a special bond measure to pay for that, that that's not smart, that's not wise. Eighty eight compliance rules will change over time. It's weird how EIGHTYA compliance rules change over time even though disabled people. I mean, it's not like the kinds of maladies disabled people have change anyway. So I understand the actual cost of what you're voting for here, and the actual nature

of what you're voting for here. I genuinely think a lot of people, and probably especially people who don't pay, who don't own a home, who are renting, they have no understanding of what a bond is. I think they hear bond. They hear people say, oh, it's five hundred million for Preston unifight. No, it's a billion dollars to the taxpayers over thirty years to fund five hundred million dollars worth of stuff for the schools. And yes, even if you're not a property owner, you're paying for it.

You're paying for it, probably through higher rent. Hold the rent's too damn high. Oh I think we should support a rent control. Well, maybe don't vote for this then, okay, Like, like, your your rent's not going to be controlled if you're voting for property tax increases. So again, just I don't think anyone should vote for this without having a full understanding of what a bond. Measure is a bond, is a loan. It is a loan to a municipal entity. It is a loan that has to be repaid, usually

over the course of about thirty years with interest. And I hate the fact that in the reporting on bond measures, the only thing we hear, that, the only thing that's in the news, and this is just standard practice in the news is five hundred million dollar bond. What every news story about a bond should include is the likely interest rate at which the likely interest rate for this loan, for this bond, and the likely amount of interest payment that we will make over the lifetime of the loan,

as well as the term of years. I think every news story should include that. It shouldn't just be Measure H the five hundred million dollar bond for president to fund improvements at present unified. No, it should be Measure H is a five hundred million dollar bond which will cost taxpayer, which will require blah blah blah, one billion dollars of taxpayer funding, with an interest rate at dah da da da da, with a term of the bond of thirty years. Blah blah blah. Every single story about

Measure A measure. H all these bond measures should include those provisions, and they don't. When we return the casual awfulness of women's magazines like Cosmo and Lle Next on the Jon Girardi Show, about two months ago, I was monitoring. It was for a work thing. I was trying to monitor something about some article relating to the abortion issue that I knew was going to be published in it.

I was monitoring on an almost daily basis the website of L magazine, e ll E magazine, the women's fashion magazine. L magazine is kind of in the same universe as you know, Cosmopolitan seventeen I think is one of those. Maybe seventeen is maybe supposed to be geared towards the younger audience, but I'm not sure now, I, as a man, do not really have much of a history with these kinds of publications. Don't read them, never have read them. They're not really written for me clearly, so I don't

have much of a sense of them. I sort of knew that. I mean, I know, have a sort of general idea that like these are women's magazines, so they're sort of centered around a lot of like fashion stuff, beauty stuff, different things. That are sort of I don't know, stereotypical women's interest. I figured because a lot of them are major media publications that probably they were very left leaning. And that's about the extent of my knowledge understanding opinions, views,

perceptions of women's magazines. But as I was monitoring L magazine every day for about a two weeks stretch, I was just floored by the relentless pro LGBT stuff, just pure straight pro Democrat propaganda. Well it's like there's not even a vague appearance of any kind of neutrality. Just here's Joe Biden, Joe Biden so great. Here's Jill Biden. Jill Biden's so great. Joe Biden's like your sexy uncle Joe Biden. She's she's smart, sassy, and knows what she's about.

Here's a feature piece about Joe Biden's daughter, who's, you know, not not a total screw up the way that Hunter is. Here's a piece about this person. It was like Biden, Biden, Biden, Biden Biden. And then the minute Biden dropped out, it was Kamala Harris, Kamala is Mamala and I was I was reading, I was monitoring it right at the time when Joe dropped out and Kamala stepped into the role as the Democrat nominee for president, and it was just Mamo la, Oh my gosh, Camilaire is so cool. Just

article after article after article after article. And I had been monitoring sort of their news and politics section and it's it's just relentless. And the pro abortion stuff was just every article was abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion. You know, this state limiting abortions terrible. This state standing up for

abortion rights is great, this state limiting abortions terrible. And every lie, every canned pro abortion argument was just being regurgitated mindlessly, and I was even surprised, like, wow, this is I thought this was like a fashion magazine, like they're this heavy into every article. I mean, now, granted I was looking just in their news and politics section, which is going to l magazine for news and politics.

Maybe that's like, you know, going to ESPN for fashion ideas, But nonetheless it was bizarre just how aggressive it was. So I found this fantastic piece for National Review that sort of mirrored my own experience, written by Abigail Anthony for National Review, A terrifying journey through Cosmo for just six dollars, I had purchased a morally corrupting poison. Before boarding a short flight, I did what I did, what I imagine most twenty something women do. I bought a

glossy magazine, Cosmopolitan. I'd never read it before, not even the battered and outdated copies at the nail salon. But I'm always open to in flight entertainment and suggestions for my ever growing lip gloss collection. After I merely glanced at the headlines, tucked between the seemingly endless advertisements for jewelry and body washes, it became clear that I wasn't being offered harmless suggestions for a stylish wardrobe. For just

six dollars, I had purchased a morally corrupting poison. Editor in chief Jessica got Le Giles Giles not Sure, introduced the Cosmopolitan issue with a short paragraph lamenting the bat blank sh blank blank the bat guano crazy election season. Giles prefaces an article about the dawn of black centered fragrances in a stubbornly white perfume industry. Pages later, the magazine's beauty editor, Julie Wilson complained that the fragrance industry

is quote super European and super white. Adding that quote, it seems like the fragrance business never got the Dei memo the rest of the beauty industry has doubled down on. She recommends eight perfumes made by people of color, but there's no description of how any of them smells, so you have no idea which ones you might actually like.

I thought that by the end of twenty twenty, progressives had exhausted their ability to whine about white people in supposed racism, but Cosmo provides a fresh spin by decrying the devilish perfume industry. Although Giles's introduction praised, quote, the possibility for young women to reinvent themselves and okay, take

over the world however they damn well please. An article by Erica W. Smith bashed self described tradwives who embody ultra traditional gender roles and produce social media content that appears like a pre feminine mystique guide to middle class white womanhood. In other words, women can reinvent themselves however they like, as long as there isn't a tenuous connection to anything traditional, religious, right leaning, or white. And it keeps going on. It's like relentless peace after piece after

piece that is some kind of left wing thing. Smith, who is also Cosmo's senior astrology editor and the author of the which, By the way, I've had so much fun teaching my older kids about what nonsense astrology is because the one thing, Okay, when I was a kid, there were a bunch of Christians who are sort of nervous about Harry Potter. I get it witchcraft, all right. I think it's harmless enough and obviously fictional, and you know,

I don't know. I don't think it's that corrupting an influence. Though. The one thing I really appreciate about Harry Potter is that the one kind of magic, even in their world that's complete nonsense is astrology. And the one professor who teaches astrology is a complete quack and is like the butt of every joke. So teaching my kids about astrology actually being complete nonsense, that that has tickled them and made them laugh. So Cosmo has an actual astrology editor,

which is hilarious. I mean, like hilarious, how stupid this is. She's also the author of a book called astro Sex, How to have the Best Sex according to Your Star Sign. So this woman compared to quote, tradwives to women who describe themselves as stay at home girlfriend. Anyway, she's going this woman who's all into astrology is talking about how ridiculous and terrible people who want to get married are. Yes, okay,

let's take the advice of the astrology expert. Seriously, they have this huge reluctance throughout the magazine apparently to say anything positive about marriage whatsoever. Like they're criticizing stay at home girlfriend. They are comparing tradwives to what's called stay

at home girlfriends. So people who are dating a man, they just stay at home and they don't work, but they're not married, and they're complaining about stay at home girlfriends don't have any of the legal protections that come with a marriage license. Now, this might lead to the argument that marriage is desirable, but for Cosmo, no marriage is still not desirable, which is like, well, then what is this antipathy towards marriage, Like they just absolutely despise marriage.

They'll promote being a stay at home girlfriend, acknowledge that it's a much less stable kind of life situation than being married, but no marriage is still bad. The reluctance to say anything positive about marriage emergence emerges from Cosmo's fatal allergy to sexual ethics. Cosmo includes a two page piece by Nell Seeler, who quote felt like a virgin again after an eleven year long marriage ended. She provides an account titled the True Tale of My Alright, any

kiddos in the car, you might want to cover your ears. Well, anyway, She has a whole article about hooking up with her handyman, explaining that she slept with a fifteen years younger guy in his yurt while traditional Romanian dance music played. There's another article entitled Announcement The Time to Pleasure Oneself is Now,

with the subheading Seriously, what are you waiting for? The writer who advertises about being all about sexing the shame away and sells erotic oracle cards state that there's something of a global masturbation gap that might be attributable in part to a lingering stigma or shame surrounding women's self pleasure. Blissfully unaware of Christianity, the article asks why aren't all of you masturbating on a regular basis? It's just going on and on and on. This just total smut, Like

it's unbelievable. To top it all off, it's like very badly written. So just a word of advice for parents, don't let your kid get a Cosmo Holy smoked, like the amount of just pure smut that is in one of the and it just makes me think, like you know, every polling trend indicates that Kamala Harris her strongest base of support is single young women. Well, no, dove, this is the kind of drek that they're reading. Anyway, needless to say, don't read Cosmo when we return. I think

Trump's gonna win. Next on the John Girardi Show, Oh grant that this is not exactly mind blowing election analysis and that frankly there's a fifty to fifty shot here that I'll be right. I mean, there's only two options here. Will come like win will Donald Trump went? I think

Trump's gonna win. I kind of think that him doing that rally in Pennsylvania this weekend, in the same spot where he got shot with one hundred thousand people there is kind of badass enough to remind Pennsylvanians that, like, you know, that was kind of an impressive thing. I think that is gonna hugely help him in Pennsylvania, and frankly, the whole election pretty much is decided on Pennsylvania. Just

that's the long and short of it. I also think, frankly, in spite of conservative conspiracy theorists who are like they're.

She needs to win North Carolina and Georgia. I mean she needs some combo of Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada. Those are the states where if you win most of those, you win, And basically Harris's path to elect though, if Trump just wins Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina. She almost has no path to victory, so I kind of feel

like Trump won the whole thing. I still have my you know, I'm still nervous about what Trump's doing with his abortion stance and all, but I'm just saying, I think he's gonna win. That'll do it. John Dirolady Show, See you next time on Power Talk