Inglewood Teachers Oppose a $396M School Bond. So Do I.

Inglewood Unified already won $330 million from two earlier bonds, and Measure MM would cost $60 for every $100,000 of assessed value.

Inglewood voters will decide in November 2026 whether to approve Measure MM, a $396 million bond for school buildings. The tax would run $60 for every $100,000 of assessed property value, and the measure needs 55% to pass. The teachers who work in those buildings are campaigning against it, The LA Local reported, and I'd vote with them.

Run that rate against a house assessed at $700,000 and it's $420 on the property tax bill. What the money can't do is pay the person standing in the classroom it repaints. Bond proceeds are restricted to construction and facilities, not salaries or operating costs.

Inglewood Teachers Association president John Hughes raised that limit with the outlet. He also said Inglewood's teachers are the lowest paid in the region.

The district has been here twice already. Two earlier bonds passed, $90 million in 2012 and $240 million in 2020, according to The LA Local's report.

Hughes set out his terms in an August 12, 2026 email to county administrator James Morris. He wrote that he couldn't back a third request without a full accounting of what the first two bought, the outlet reported. He also wanted a response to steep enrollment decline, and the accountability questions settled first.

A sitting board member agrees with him. Brandon Myers, the incumbent running in Trustee Area 3, told The LA Local that Inglewood taxpayers have covered the cost of delayed projects under the earlier bonds. He attributed those delays to a lack of accountability and construction expertise. He said he can't support another tax burden while the board sits in county receivership.

Five of the six board candidates the outlet contacted didn't respond.

Fourteen years under state control. Now a $396 million ask.

The strongest version of the yes case isn't weak, and it belongs in this column at full strength. School buildings wear out, students and teachers do better in ones that work, and facilities money doesn't come from anywhere else.

Morris put it plainly to the outlet: “The fact is we need to maintain and modernize all schools across the district.” He points to the new Inglewood High School campus now under construction as the example of what the next round would buy.

I read the union's position at first as a pay fight wearing a bond costume. That's easy to discount, since bond dollars can't reach a salary schedule no matter who wins. The email doesn't allow that reading. The demand on the table costs the district nothing but paperwork: show homeowners, campus by campus, what the $330 million paid for.

A district that has spent fourteen years under state supervision doesn't get the benefit of the doubt as a standing condition. It earns it back with documents.

Fifty-five percent is a low bar, and the district has until November to clear it honestly. Put the prior-bond accounting somewhere an Inglewood homeowner can read it before the ballots go out.

Source: laist.com, retrieved September 3, 2026.