Long-term budget woes jeopardize 'Year of Education'
Casting a cloud over the "Year of Education" that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised, the Legislative Analyst's Office last month released a sobering report on state revenues—a report that, under one option, could entail a $400 million cut in education funding through June 2008 and continuing shortfalls affecting all state programs for the following five years.
The LAO projects a $1.9 billion deficit in the current budget year. Lower property tax receipts, a general economic downturn and other factors are causing revenues to lag behind projections, according to the nonpartisan office that advises the state Legislature on fiscal and policy issues. The shortfall could grow to $10 billion in the 2008-09 budget year.
The gloomy outlook confirms the alarm that senior CSBA officials had already been sounding about the current budget year and beyond.
"Education is not fully funded, and all of the work that we do in our adequacy campaign will be directed toward shining a light on that," CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin said during CSBA's Back-to-School Conference Webcast in September. He was referring to "Learn More California," the ongoing outreach and advocacy effort to inform the public about the level of spending needed to adequately fund the high education standards the state has established.
Despite such protests from the education community, the range of remedies that Legislative Analysis Elizabeth G. Hill suggests for this year's budget include cutting education funding by approximately $400 million. That would reduce spending on schools to the minimum level guaranteed by Proposition 98, the funding guarantee for K-12 public schools and junior colleges that voters enacted in 1988.
“We’ve been warning districts for several months about the bleak budget outlook, and the LAO report confirms our worst fears," Rick Pratt, CSBA's assistant executive director for Governmental Relations, said when the Legislative Analyst's Office report was released.
"Clearly, this problem is not going to be solved with one-time gimmicks or other budgetary sleight of hand. It’s going to require choosing between two equally unpopular alternatives—deep cuts or higher taxes,” Pratt added.
Proposition 98 largely protects education spending from such deep cuts—unless the Legislature and governor suspend the funding guarantee, as occurred in 2004. However, the budget problems now developing threaten the state's ability to finance year-to-year growth in Proposition 98 funding, the LAO report says.
"To make matters even more challenging, these near-term issues are accompanied by the significant issue of planning for future education reform, " the report continues.
The Governor's Committee on Education Excellence is expected to release an extensive report soon on how to align the state's education policies and spending with the high academic standards expected of its schools. A collection of other studies released earlier this year included a call for education funding to rise by as much as 40 percent or more over current levels, and Schwarzenegger has already pledged that 2008 would usher in a "Year of Education" when the state's schools would take a high priority.
Related link:
Download the LAO report @ www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/main.aspx.