By Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald

California schools’ rendezvous with rock bottom is over.  A massive grassroots campaign, an eleventh hour surge in advertising and strategic targeting of likely voters pulled Proposition 30 over the halfway mark yesterday, giving both Gov. Jerry Brown and California public schools and community colleges a victory. With all of the vote reported, Prop 30 led 53.9 to 46.1 percent.  The initiative is expected to raise nearly $7 billion for education this year by raising income taxes on the wealthiest Californians and increasing the state sales tax by a quarter-cent for the next four years.

“I know some people had some doubts, had some questions – can you really go to people and ask them to raise their tax?” Brown told supporters celebrating at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Sacramento Tuesday night. “We had a lot of obstacles. We overcame them.”

via Big win for schools as Prop 30 defies polls – by Kathryn Baron and John Fensterwald.