Proposition 15 is one of the biggest-ticket items on the California ballot this year. It would have major consequences for one of the most iconic and obsession-driving ballot measures of all time: Proposition 13, which capped the growth of property taxes in 1978. Some laws get passed and forgotten. Others, like Obamacare or the 1994 Crime Bill, continue to gather new life force, like hyper objects of the American imagination. Prop. 13 is like that. At the bottom of any deep discussion about school finance, Prop. 13 is always lurking. Progressives who want to see more funding for schools say the measure put an artificial cap on revenue that has hobbled educational progress in the state for 30 years. San Diego Unified school board president John Lee Evans told me previously that the fiscal drought caused by Prop. 13 was literally the only thing standing between the school district and a quality school in every neighborhood. While it’s hard to imagine closing the achievement gap is truly that simple, California schools are underfunded compared with other states, as PACE, a research group, broke down in a report this week. This year’s Prop. 15 wouldn’t overturn Prop. 13, but it would drastically change it – by increasing property taxes on businesses. Currently, property values used for tax assessments can’t grow more than 2 percent per year. The only time those properties get a new, market-rate assessment is when they change hands. Estimates suggest it would raise anywhere from $6.5 billion to $11.5 billion. One chunk of the money – 40 percent – could go to schools and community colleges, while the other 60 percent could go to municipal governments.