Governor’s plan yanks education funding; district looks to
save
Gilroy – Cuts likely will encroach on Gilroy’s classrooms as the governor’s latest plan to close the estimated $8.1 million deficit yanks funds promised for public education.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger took aim Monday at what he called the “lunacy” of the state budget system by unveiling a $111.7 billion no-new-taxes budget that increases spending overall but holds the line on spending growth throughout state government.
Education spending would rise by $2.9 billion under the governor’s spending plan for the 2005-06 fiscal year, which covers a growing student population and a cost-of-living adjustment, but little more. Education spending is the largest share of the state’s general fund, with Schwarzenegger proposing a $36.5 billion budget next year – an increase of $2.4 billion in state money over last year’s budget.
The increase works out to a $362 per pupil increase in state funds, for a total of $10,084 per student, including all state and federal sources.
Last year, Schwarzenegger made a deal with education interests that cut $2 billion from expected money for schools guaranteed by Proposition 98, the voter-approved funding measure. That was to help close a $17 billion deficit. Now, school leaders want $1.1 billion in unanticipated tax revenues this year they claim they are entitled to under Proposition 98.
Schwarzenegger, following the lead of the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, said those funds will instead go to help solve the budget deficit. The governor and the LAO say schools cannot claim the extra funds because the Legislature suspended the funding guarantee last year.
The state’s two teachers unions, administration and other education groups called the budget plan a broken promise to schools.
Steve Brinkman, GUSD’s assistant superintendent of administrative services, said the cut likely will mean reductions in the classroom, although he said it was too early to speculate about specific numbers.
“It’s still premature, but the question is, where do you go next?'” he said. “We can’t make any more cuts in classified (employees), which is where we’ve had to cut over the past few years. So, we’re starting to have to look at the classroom.”
Classified employees are employees such as custodians, secretaries, bus drivers and maintenance workers. A number of those positions have been cut in GUSD over the past few years to help save money.
Brinkman will attend a budget meeting to analyze the governor’s proposal Thursday and will present the school board with a briefing later this month. In the meantime, he said, he will begin work to see exactly how the cut will affect GUSD.
“I can’t see how (cutting Proposition 98 funding) can help the matter at all,” Brinkman said. “That proposition was set up to protect schools, and when you end up losing that as a revenue source, unless something else comes in or is supplanted, it means tighter days for schools ahead.”
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell said the governor’s broken promise holds serious consequences for the state’s public schools.
“California schools have suffered more than $9.8 billion in cuts in the last four years. The governor’s plan to suspend Proposition 98 for a second year in a row, then to render it meaningless through his own autopilot budget formula, breaks the education agreement he made just last year,” O’Connell said in a statement. “It fails our students, starves our schools, and consigns our public K-12 education system to a state of permanent underfunding.”
Public schools in California have three sources of primary funding: federal, state and local aid. This school year, state aid accounted for roughly $48 million – or 85 percent – of GUSD’s total general use budget. That fund helps pay for a variety of purposes, primarily the salaries of certificated employees and also employee benefits, supplies and services.
State aid largely depends on the average number of students attending school during the year, with a higher attendance number meaning more state aid. With an enrollment of 9,679 this year, GUSD received $4,904 per student from the state based on average daily attendance.
Federal funding provided the district a meager $3,795 this year, and local revenue accounted for about $636,000. An additional, smaller source of funding is the California Lottery, which represents a little more than 1 percent of schools’ total budgets. Lottery funds provide GUSD annually with about $123 per student. Of that, $110 per student goes to general purposes and $13 per student goes to special groups. Each district decides how the lottery funds are spent.
Brinkman said the next couple of years don’t look very promising.
“I don’t see any relief until 2007-08,” he said. “It all points to the state of the economy. Until that gets better, you’re going to continue to struggle in California.”
