After 41 years of strangled school budgets, the public is finally awakening to the harm done to K-12 students since 1978.

The school board has set one of its four goals as “fiscal responsibility”; they owe it to the children and families of GUSD to explore all options, and that includes the Schools and Communities First Measure.

Homeowners are burdened with so many other taxes to make up for the yawning hole in our budget where steady revenue from large commercial properties should be.

While California has the fifth-largest economy in the world, its per pupil spending is near the bottom of the 50 states.

The lack of funds for our schools points to one long-term solution: reforming Proposition 13.

With the rising costs of rent and housing in California, our labor force needs higher wages, and the state needs more revenue. 

Closing the loophole for big businesses would not only make it fair; it would provide up to $12 billion in revenue and help fund the first-rate schools California once boasted.

Most people don’t know that California — one of the most Democratic states in the nation — is actually on par with several of these red states in education funding.

It’s past time for commercial property owners to pay their fair share at current market rates.

Today, corporations pay only one quarter, and that percentage dwindles each year.

So, when the governor says he doesn’t want to make too many enemies by supporting reform, he is either out of touch with this new political reality or, more likely, he is unwilling to admit exactly which enemies he is afraid of.

Gov. Jerry Brown’s statement about how he won’t support Prop. 13 reform is a loss for California’s already underfunded schools and public services.

The deterioration of this beautiful state began with Proposition 13.

It’s a shared public shame that a state as wealthy as California doesn’t adequately fund education, mental health services, libraries and first responders.

We now pay the highest sales and income taxes in the nation to compensate for the billions we lose every year from this corporate tax giveaway.

Reforming Proposition 13 so that large commercial properties pay market value property tax rates would bring in billions in reliable revenue each year to our schools and public services.

The virtual abandonment of California’s commitment to funding its public university system coincided with the enactment and aftermath of Proposition 13, which significantly reduced state revenues from property taxes.