Win Win: An Insider's Guide to School Bonds: Improve Your Schools and Protect Local Taxpayers

There are more than 1,000 school and community college (K-14) districts in California. To build, repair, or equip their campuses, they must ask voters to approve a general obligation (GO) bond and raise their property taxes rates -- a big ask.

While GO bonds have become a multi-billion-dollar market, there has to date been no how to guide for district administrators, elected officials, taxpayer organizations, and concerned citizens. There is now.

With hard-earned wisdom and wry wit, Dale Scott, California's leading K-14 financial advisor, has written WIN WIN: An Insider's Guide to School Bonds to demystify the complex, often challenging process that goes on underneath the hood in developing, structuring, passing, and selling a GO bond.

Drawing on three decades of work as an advisor to school districts and community college districts, investment banker on Wall Street, financial advisor, and campaign manager, Dale walks readers through each step of the process, answering the many questions he's been asked over the years.

Hard-hitting, detailed, and humorous, WIN WIN explores and explains why some bond elections pass but others fail, how bond deals are put together, tips on selecting the right team of professionals, how to avoid recent scandals surrounding GO bonds, and how to tell if tax rate estimates are accurate or just wishful thinking.

Scott's book is an upbeat demystification of the complex processes of California school bonds, showing that when executed correctly, the teamwork of passing a school bond can have a transformative effect on both local schools and people's sense of their role in their community.