Vantage Point: We simply must change the conversation on school funding 

After a difficult special election and the filing of a lawsuit, the governor has finally decided to keep his promise to the children of this state and restore funding that was owed to the schools under Proposition 98 and the 2004 budget agreement. I again want to commend all of your efforts during the special election that helped to bring us to this point. I also want to acknowledge the efforts of CSBA’s Education Legal Alliance in helping to settle the lawsuit with the governor. As intervenors in the case, CSBA and the Association of California School Administrators joined with the California Teachers Association and state Superintendent Jack O’Connell to work out the settlement agreement with the governor. This funding will allow us to begin to restore some of the programs that were cut from our budgets over recent years.

I want to remind everyone that this is just this year’s budget. Next year the process will begin again and the outcome could be very different. Each year we struggle to protect our Proposition 98 funding. But where has that gotten us? The annual process of chasing Proposition 98 has placed us below the national average in per-pupil funding.

In School District 30 in Northbrook and Glenview, Ill., the K-8 school district where I once taught, the budget is $13,200 per student. Class sizes range from 16-23 depending on grade level. Regular classes in art and music begin in kindergarten and are taught by credentialed art and music teachers. Beginning in first grade, all elementary students receive daily PE instruction from a credentialed PE teacher; kindergarteners receive PE instruction three times per week. The district has 3.5 full-time ESL teachers for three schools. Each school has a reading specialist, two resource teachers, a social worker and a half-time psychologist.

That is just a little different than the resources that we are able to provide for our students. I think that the children in California deserve the same opportunities as the children in Illinois. In fact, they deserve the same opportunities as children in New Jersey, New York, Vermont, Wyoming and all the other states that fund education at a higher level than we do.

For years we have worked just to protect our Proposition 98 funding, which was never intended to be a ceiling. Yet, sadly, that is what it has become.

I think it is time for us to realize that we are having the wrong conversation! It is for that reason that CSBA, on behalf of the Education Coalition, along with PTA, Children Now, and the League of Women Voters, has begun to engage focus groups across the state in a discussion about adequate school funding: How much money do we need to provide our students with a well-rounded curriculum that includes science, social studies, PE, the arts and career technical education? How much money do we need to provide counselors, librarians and school nurses for our schools? Why should we ask our children to settle for any less?

We need to change the conversation. School funding should be based on the amount of money needed to attain our high expectations for student outcomes and not on carving out a portion of each year’s state revenues. Be a part of the conversation; help folks in this state understand that the children are our future. They are a part of the infrastructure that cannot be ignored.