ANTONIO BACKS SCHOOL MEASURE $3.985 BILLION BOND WINS ENDORSEMENT.

Byline: Beth Barrett and Rick Orlov Staff Writers

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa - who has made improving Los Angeles schools a key goal of his first term - joined district Superintendent Roy Romer on Wednesday to endorse a $3.985 billion school bond measure on the November special-election ballot.

The fourth in a series of construction and modernization bonds, Measure Y would bring the Los Angeles Unified School District's massive school-construction fund to more than $20 billion, including state matching money.

``I want to use my political capital to help get this passed,'' Villaraigosa said during an afternoon news conference at the 61st Street Elementary School. ``We can't say we honor our children and then put them in schools that look like prisons.''

Earlier in the day, Romer told Daily News editors and reporters that the bond would be the last in the construction program, although he acknowledged several billion dollars' worth of repairs and maintenance at hundreds of schools would remain unfinished.

The proposed bond includes $1.6 billion for construction and $1.5 billion to modernize existing schools, such as improving fire safety and air conditioning and making basic repairs.

The LAUSD is anticipating about $1 billion from the state, roughly divided between construction and modernization.

The heart of the proposed construction bond is 20,000 additional elementary school seats on 25 new campuses, including five in the San Fernando Valley.

With those additional seats, 19 other Valley schools could switch from a year-round schedule to a traditional calendar.

The bond work is scheduled to be completed by 2012.

The new bond would cost the owner of a $315,000 home about $190 per year.

But Kris Vosburgh, executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which wrote the ballot argument opposing the bond, estimated that the owner of a $315,000 home would pay about $540 in 2009 for the LAUSD bond program - about 20 percent of that owner's total tax bill.

He said indications of declining enrollment should caution the district into rushing into additional debt.

``We could find ourselves committing to greater debt to schools sitting idle in a decade,'' Vosburgh said.

Romer defended the expense of building new schools, saying that LAUSD test scores - while still lagging California's as a whole - have climbed faster than the state's scores since 1999.

He said ``small learning communities'' being developed at the schools are reforming local education, while the schools themselves contribute to the quality of life - including recreational facilities and green space - for many neighborhoods.

``In terms of the homeowner and business owners who have to pay for this thing over a period of time, there is a return on investment here in terms of if the quality of schools is raised,'' Romer said. ``I'm doing it because it actually affects the quality of teaching.''

Added Villaraigosa, ``It is past time to give our kids the schools they deserve. We need to build these schools now. Our kids have waited long enough.''

Rick Orlov, [phone]

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com