Editorial

The number is staggering -- $344 million.

That’s more than a third of a billion dollars that the Coast Community

College District will be asking the public to shell out to help rebuild,

reshape and repair the aging facilities of Orange Coast, Golden West and

Coastline community colleges.

To put that number in perspective, in 1998, the O’Malley family sold

the Dodger baseball empire to Fox media mogul Rupert Murdoch for just

$311 million.

So just what can we buy for that $344-million price tag?

Furthermore, just how much is it going to cost mom and pop to finance

that bill?

Well, we don’t have the answers to those questions just now, but that

is exactly the point we’d like to make.

When the Newport-Mesa Unified School District embarked on its campaign

to get a $110-million bond to repair its aging campuses, it made a good

case to the public that the money was well-needed.

There were no surprises. The plan was well thought out and, thanks to

a detailed spending and repair plan generated by district officials,

voters knew if they said yes to the bond, then the money would be spent

properly and for good reason. And, they’d also know just where the cash

would go.

The result was a stunning 72% victory at the polls, easily surpassing

the 66.6% two-thirds majority needed to pass.

That was no easy feat, and while the leaders at the college district

need only secure 55%, thanks to Proposition 39 that passed last year, we

urge them to follow the example Newport-Mesa set.

They need to make the case to the public that the college facilities

are truly in need of fixing. That the repairs are so great that they call

for such drastic measures as a $344-million bond.

They need to spell out clearly how much it is going to cost residents

if this bond is passed and how long we will have to pay the money back.

We will all need to know this and certainly before we can lend our

support, before the public can be expected to get behind such a major

initiative, lots of questions need to be answered.

We’ll be eager to hear what those are.