Action alert: Urge the Legislature to fully fund base programs

Work on the state budget for 2007-08 begins in earnest today, when a conference committee composed of thee state senators and three Assembly members is expected to begin weeklong deliberations. Education issues are not likely to be discussed until Monday.

The education budget subcommittees of both houses have rejected most of the new spending proposals from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May revision of the budget proposal he submitted in January. To deal with the administration’s inadvertent omission of $364 million in equalization funding, legislative committees turned down most new education spending. The Senate did retain funding for more of the programs, including $2 million for the EnCorps Alternative Teacher Certification Program, $3 million for Personnel Management Assistance Teams and $7.5 million for math and science teacher recruitment.

The Senate and Assembly have agreed on several education-related items, including:

• full funding of the 4.53 percent cost-of-living adjustment
• restoration of the $364 million in equalization funding
• provision of $25 million to increase the school meal reimbursement rate

On mandates, the Senate earmarked $90 million and the Assembly $80 million. Unfortunately, either figure is far short of the $340 million needed to fully fund expected mandate costs for 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Remaining issues and CSBA recommendations

A couple of non-education issues have become points of significant contention this year, and neither is expected to affect the Proposition 98 funding guarantee. One is the governor’s proposal to shift over a billion dollars from the Public Transportation Account to the state General Fund to cover other transportation-related costs, including the Home-to-School Transportation program. The other issue is the governor’s proposal not to fund the cost-of-living adjustment for those individuals with disabilities who are receiving supplemental support.

CSBA and the education community are recommending several departures from the plans of the governor and the two houses of the Legislature, including funding for program deficits, special education and mandates.

Specifically, CSBA is urging the conference committee to:

• eliminate deficits of $78.1 million in supplemental instruction, $4.1 million for community day schools and $27 million for school meal reimbursements
• increase funding for special education by $50 million
• provide additional funding to try to cover the full, $340 million cost of mandates for 2006-07 and 2007-08

Related link:

To urge the Legislature to fully fund base programs, please go to the following link:

http://ga1.org/csba/home.html