Vantage Point: Board members, stay the course on the budget 

My year as president of the California School Boards Association has developed into a series of very interesting circumstances and complex political events that I would never have imagined a year ago. Paramount among these events has been the nearly 180-degree about-face that the governor has taken toward education and members of the Education Coalition. The members of this coalition — which include CSBA, the Association of California School Administrators, the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, the California Teachers Association, the California Association of School Business Officials, the California Federation of Teachers, the California State PTA, the California School Employees Association and the Service Employees International Union — strategize and work in unison on education issues, especially as they relate to Proposition 98. This year the coalition has strongly reinforced its commitment to protect Prop. 98.

Along with the devastating provisions of his budget proposal, the governor has also backed four divisive initiatives: one guts the guarantees of Prop. 98 and gives the governor nearly autonomous authority over the budget, including the enactment of midyear cuts in place of legislative suspension; the second purports to “reform” state pension provisions by replacing defined benefits with defined contributions; a third restructures teacher tenure; and a fourth proposes merit pay for teachers. Recently, the governor withdrew the pension reform initiative due to overwhelming opposition.

Usually CSBA does not take a position on initiatives until they have actually qualified for the ballot. This year, because of the governor’s aggressive and shortsighted education agenda, things are slightly different. At our April Board of Directors meeting, the Executive Committee recommended that the board take an oppose position on all the governor’s initiatives and this recommendation will be put before the Delegate Assembly in May.

Such an early position on these initiatives has been prompted by the fact that rapidly drafted and flawed initiatives are a poor way to make education law and policy. In the absence of the normal debates that occur during the legislative process the public does not hear the pros and cons of the issue nor do lawmakers have the opportunity to come to a compromise more palatable to affected parties. No such compromise is possible in the initiative process. If it passes, it’s law! This year it is important that the governor’s initiatives be defeated. These issues are too important and have too great an impact on the education of our children and the governance of local districts to be accepted without meaningful discussion.

How should individual school boards respond in the face of this highly politicized situation? First, have confidence that CSBA is representing the interests of all public schools and all children in California. Those interests are nonpolitical; it wouldn’t matter whether the current budget proposal was from a Democratic or Republican governor. The governor made an agreement in which the education community gave up $2 billion in exchange for his promise that we would get our fair share of any additional state revenues and that more harmful cuts would be avoided in future years. The governor has fulfilled neither promise.

We have asked school boards across the state to pass a resolution voicing opposition to the governor’s budget, using either the CSBA sample resolution as-is or modified to suit local needs. No district in this state will go unscathed if this budget passes. Already, districts have sent thousands of March 15 “pink slips” to teachers; classified staff are vulnerable, class-size reduction has been eliminated and AB 1200 reserves have been depleted. It is time for school boards to stand up and make it known that an adequate level of funding for schools is needed if we are to prosper as a state. Proposition 98 was approved by voters to stabilize school funding and provide a mechanism for increases, yet we are 44th in the nation in per-pupil education spending. This is unacceptable to me and it should be unacceptable to everyone.

While school boards might someday be interested in discussions with the governor and Legislature about tenure reform, pension reform and merit pay, in this era of so-called budget reform these proposals provide no overt budget relief but only seek to polarize the education community. Let’s wait and have the discussion later in a venue that allows discussion and provides a mechanism to resolve the issues fairly.

Boards should stay the course this year and follow CSBA’s recommendations on the budget, Prop. 98 reform and the governor’s initiatives, until the governor once again embraces the education community as colleagues who can listen and provide help — not as a special interest group. After all, it is the interests of all children for which we advocate.