Back-to-School: ‘The roller coaster heads back up’
Published: October 1, 2006
Legislation, litigation, regulation—oh, yes, and education—set the agenda as CSBA brought its annual Back-to-School conferences to venues up and down the state in September. The events give local board members from school districts and county offices of education a chance to get detailed briefings on issues affecting their responsibilities as the traditional school calendar begins another year.
“The roller coaster heads back up,” is how CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin characterized the state budget during the initial Back-to-School conference in Sacramento. Proposition 98 funding guarantees for education were met for the first time in two years, with significant increases for discretionary and categorical programs and a 5.92 percent cost-of-living adjustment, although actual increases vary depending on each local education agency’s revenue limit.
Plotkin urged local education officials to support Proposition 1D, the $10 billion bond issue on the November ballot for school facilities construction. He also expressed hope that the CSBA-led “adequacy campaign”—a long-term effort to determine how much money is really needed to properly educate the state’s public schoolchildren and how to distribute that funding equitably to ensure that all children have access to a quality education—will lead to real progress in 2007.
Rick Pratt, CSBA assistant executive director for Governmental Relations, reviewed the outcome of the lawsuit over Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s failure to honor Proposition 98 requirements in fiscal years 2004-05 and 2005-06. A $2.9 billion fund for some of the lowest-performing schools, mostly for class-size reduction and additional school counselors, will be made available over seven years. However, only 1,500 schools will be eligible for the funds under the legislation implementing the settlement—and as few as 500 schools will actually receive the money, which will become available starting in the 2007-08 school year.
“You’ve got to think twice … about applying to be included in the program” because of the stringent requirements tied to the funds, Pratt warned. “There are a lot of problems with this program.”
CSBA’s 2006-07 K-12 Budget Advisory is available at www.csba.org/gr/index.cfm.
Federal issues
At the federal level, CSBA Senior Legislative Advocate Erika Hoffman called for a groundswell of local support for changes in the No Child Left Behind Act as the law heads for reauthorization in 2007. The National School Boards Association is coordinating efforts to rescind NCLB’s most onerous requirements, and CSBA will renew its own “Fix NCLB” campaign soon. Updated information will be posted at www.csba.org.
Hoffman reported that Congress recently reauthorized the Perkins Act to fund career and technical education—the largest single source of federal funding for middle and high schools—despite President Bush’s calls to abolish the program. However, regulations being drafted to implement the revised act are tying the funding to NCLB in ways that could conflict with California’s own rigorous career training standards. “That is going to have to be something that we keep a very, very close eye on,” Hoffman said.
Concerns also persist about funding for local education agencies’ work on Medicare Administrative Activities, Hoffman said. MAA brought California LEAs an estimated $150 million in 2005-06 for school-based health care and outreach services to students and their families, but the Bush administration has proposed eliminating that funding. Hoffman said updates and action plans to preserve MAA reimbursements are available at www.TheLEAnet.comand www.HealthAdvocacy.net.
Charter schools, other issues
State charter school regulations may be changing for the worse, so far as school districts are concerned, Stephanie Farland warned. The senior research and policy consultant has represented CSBA at negotiations over regulations in Proposition 39, the initiative passed six years ago to require school districts to accommodate charter schools’ facilities needs, and related court decisions.
“The meetings were very polarized,” Farland said. They may result in regulations requiring districts to adjust their own existing programs to accommodate charter operations’ facilities needs. However, CSBA continues to work to maximize district’s discretion as they work with charter operators. “We didn’t agree with a lot of that language” that the state Department of Education is drafting for the Board of Education to adopt into administrative law, Farland said, but “that language is probably going to go forward anyway.” Efforts to influence rules on equipment, such as laboratory supplies and furnishings, disposition of district property, dispute resolution procedures and other issues also encountered stiff resistance. CSBA will continue to weigh its options, including legal remedies.
The state board’s approval earlier this year of the first statewide benefit charter school—High Tech High School, in San Diego—was another troubling sign, Farland added.
“We strongly feel that the state board did not follow its own regulations in approving these schools,” Farland said. Two more statewide benefit charters are now awaiting approval, and “I think we’re going to be seeing them more and more,” she said.
Local districts have no control over statewide benefit charters and do not even need to be notified that they have been proposed, but the districts are still required to provide facilities for them. Farland urged district officials to monitor the state Board of Education agendas (available at www.cde.ca.gov/be/ag/ag/index.asp) and watch for statewide benefit charter petitions that might affect them.
Other topics covered at the Back-to-School Conferences included:
- Before- and after-school programs—Research Consultant Marguerite Noteware summarized significant developments, especially the provision for the first time this year of $450 million under Proposition 49, passed by voters in 2002, and she noted that those funds may ease competition for 21st Century Community Learning Centers funding. Noteware urged local education agencies to monitor the state Department of Education Web page at www.cde.ca.gov/ls/bafor funding information and application procedures. “My biggest tip,” Noteware said, is “Start planning immediately for these programs.”
- Pandemic flu—Martin Gonzalez, assistant executive director for Governance and Policy Services, warned local officials to prepare for a possible outbreak—especially if the avian flu virus mutates into a strain that can be transferred from human to human. Unlike seasonal flu outbreaks, pandemic flu could occur at any time.
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