Not One New Dollar for Kids

Strip away the campaign and read the text. Measure M does three things.

• It raises about $10 million a year, starting July 2027, at $95 a parcel with increases up to 3% every year and no end date.

• It says those dollars are spent on special education, early intervention and related staff and resources — with priorities "established by the Board."

• It requires the superintendent to file a yearly report with the board.

That's it. Now read what it doesn't do.

It doesn't require the district to keep spending a single dollar of its own money on special education. There's no clause saying the new money has to be added on top. The district spends about $263 million a year on special education, most of it from its general fund. Measure M lets the district bill $10 million of those existing costs to the tax and pull $10 million of its own money back out — for a superintendent raise, for the trustee stipend increase the board discussed and set aside without a vote, for district-office salaries, for consultants, for anything. All of it legal. None of it touching a student.

It doesn't require a balanced budget, a reserve, or a single reform. It doesn't create an independent citizens' oversight committee. It doesn't guarantee a minimum amount to any school, program, teacher or child.

The Yes campaign's own ballot argument tells you the plan. The first words of the ballot question: "To address the decline in Federal funding." Their rebuttal adds Measure M to a teachers' deal to "close the federal funding gap." Closing a gap means backfilling what the district already spends. That's not new money for kids. That's relief for the district budget with a special-education label on it.