Vantage Point: It's going to be a long, hot summer 

Summer has only been here a few weeks and already the mercury has reached over 100 degrees several times in Southern California and it should have reached the boiling point in most school district board rooms. With the governor's signing of the budget July 11, support for our schools has been set back a decade, and if the "Live within Our Means" initiative (Proposition 76) passes in November, education funding will have returned to the Dark Ages.

By now every district is trying to reconcile its version of the 45-day revised budget to incorporate the actual funding next year and to make decisions about which cuts or program reductions are to remain in order to balance and maintain sufficient reserves. The real impact of this budget on teachers, staff and classroom activities has yet to be fully determined. But, at best, next year we will all be treading water, barely able to make ends meet.

However, the most frustrating aspect of this year's budget process has been the duplicity on the part of the governor and the Legislature. First, education was the governor's friend, supporter and ally, willing to negotiate in good faith a fair agreement to a limited suspension of Proposition 98. Then we were the sole scapegoat of the state's budget crisis, branded as liars and a pack of special interests intent on forcing a tax increase and repealing Proposition 13. Democrats in the Legislature initially were intent on fighting for education funding and honoring Proposition 98 by including the $3.1 billion in additional funds guaranteed to schools by Proposition 98 and the agreement with the governor; then they rolled over and gave the governor nearly everything he wanted, trying to placate the Education Coalition by promising to push a legislative measure to fund the $3.1 billion with a dedicated tax increase or by some other unknown or unspoken means.

I hope all school districts take any promise by the governor or the Legislature with a fair amount of skepticism and cynicism. The likelihood of having any additional funds this year or next is remote. The trade-off for the Legislature was having a relatively early budget with a lot of time to concentrate on battling the propositions in the November election. What did get removed was the shift of the state teachers retirement and mental health costs into Proposition 98, and the budget maintains the mental health cost mandate. This amounts to almost $500 million in costs that will not come from school budgets. Nonetheless, even this small conciliation has to be regarded cautiously, since half of the STRS shift is being paid from money the Legislature had allocated as part of the state's payment to "settle up" Proposition 98 underpayments from years ago.

What does that portend for next year's proposals from the governor? To keep matters even more confused, a spate of editorials on possible backroom deals with the governor to call off the special election or to support alternate legislative proposals has everyone in Sacramento watching the halls. One thing is clear, Proposition 76 must be defeated and the Proposition 98 school funding guarantee upheld until such time as a determination of the true cost of educating California's children can be ascertained and a stable, adequate funding mechanism enacted. This is no small feat, but we have a long, hot summer to work on it.