Funding gathers dust for seismic retrofits at schools

When California voters approved a $10.4 billion school construction bond in 2006, $199.5 million was set aside to establish the state's first fund dedicated to paying for seismic retrofits at public schools. First in line were districts with structures on the state inventory of seismically vulnerable buildings. But two years later, not a dime has been spent to move thousands of students and their teachers into modern classrooms designed to survive even severe shaking, or shore up existing school structures with steel anchors and braces.