Plotkin: Governor’s budget falls short, but a good start 

Scott P. Plotkin, Executive Director of the California School Boards Association, said CSBA looks forward to continuing constructive talks with Gov. Schwarzenegger and the Legislature about next year’s education budget and believes the administration’s preliminary spending proposals are a move in the right direction.

But Plotkin stressed that CSBA, like other members of the Education Coalition, believes that the governor’s education proposals introduced earlier this week still fall far short of “meeting our needs.” Plotkin said that the proposals outlined Jan. 3 by Education Secretary Alan Bersin in his meeting with the Education Coalition – and presented to the capital press corps later that day – are “steps in the right direction.”

“It was clear that the governor wants to keep the lines of communication open. However, he is not proposing a budget that aligns with the agreement that was made with the Education Coalition in 2003 for the 2004-05 budget,” Plotkin said. “The major point of disagreement we will have is with the definition of the ‘base’ for Proposition 98 that we believe should be nearly $4 billion higher than the base assumed by the Department of Finance and the Legislative Analyst.”

The governor will deliver his State of the State address to a joint session of the Legislature Jan. 5; he introduces his proposed budget Jan. 10.

Bersin told the coalition that the governor will propose allocating sufficient funds to provide for a cost-of-living increase of 5 percent or more and growth for all programs, and will introduce a variety of new programmatic initiatives, including more support for remedial high-school tutoring, an additional year of support for beginning teachers and more money for vocational education.

In addition, the governor will propose fully funding the Proposition 98 guarantee at $52.2 billion for 2006-07 and increasing the guarantee by adding $428 million for Proposition 49 after-school programs and $1.67 billion for the 2004-05 maintenance factor. These figures provide total Proposition 98 funding of $54.3 billion for 2006-07, an increase of $4.3 billion over the current budget year. Other proposed allocations include this discretionary funding:

• $2.273 billion for full COLA and growth (this amount requires $561 million in funding over the guarantee; the coalition disputes the assertion that the full funding of COLA and growth would require an “over-appropriation of Proposition 98”);
• $205 million for deficit factor reduction – this is two-thirds of the deficit reduction;
• $133 million for mandate repayment – with follow-up to address audit issues;
• $200 million for equalization (will address 50 percent of the purported need); it does not appear that this would address county offices of education.

The governor proposes allocating and earmarking funds for these priorities:

• $100 million in a block grant for deciles 1-3 for teacher/principal training and recruitment in hard to staff schools and subjects (math, science, special education);
• $65 million to add a third year of Beginning Teacher Support and Assessment for low-performing schools;
• $100 million block grant for music and art programs in K-8 (matching fund grants);
• $85 million for physical education programs – $25 million to recruit PE teachers;
• $30 million (added to $20 million provided in this budget year) for a total of $50 million to expand 2+2 Career Technical Education programs administered by the community colleges;
• $20 million (added to $20 million provided this budget year) for a total of $40 million for California High School Exit Exam assistance.

Infrastructure issues, including school infrastructure needs, will be addressed in the State of the State.