State budget: If locals lead, leaders may follow
Campaign to extend revenues continues
Published: April 1, 2011
There have been two encouraging signs to arise out of the current budget debacle. The first came in January, with the release of Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget. Despite a crippling deficit, the new governor took the significant step of saying enough is enough—schools have been cut far too much in the last few years and have borne the brunt of efforts to close the state’s continuing budget deficit.
The second has been the ongoing efforts of school governance teams to engage their legislators and communities in discussions regarding the state budget and its impact on local school districts and county offices of education.
One thing is certain in the months-long debate over extending tax revenues: Californians deserve a chance to vote on the issue. There have been numerous efforts to communicate the need for a balanced approach to resolving the state’s ongoing budget saga, including CSBA’s outreach to school board members with resources they can use when contacting legislators.
As leaders in their communities, school board members are primed for involvement and are credible sources on how the last few years of budget cuts have impacted their schools and students. CSBA expedited the process for appointing governmental relations chairs and asked them to contact their legislators immediately.
GRCs serve as the local liaisons between legislators and CSBA, but it’s not necessary to be a GRC to take part in CSBA’s coordinated advocacy efforts. The relationship that vocal school board members develop with their legislators provides an important local perspective on what’s important in the legislators’ schools—and, by extension, in their communities and among their constituents.
CSBA also prepared a sample board resolution in support of putting the tax extensions before voters and received approximately 370 resolutions representing over 50 percent of the students in the state. Action alerts followed in February and March, asking board members to write their legislators and urge them to support a special election on the question of extending the revenues for five years. All told, over 900 letters were sent to legislators as a result.
Those actions don’t include the numerous individual contacts made by school board members and the local forums that have been scheduled, many of which included participation by legislators. Many board members contributed further to the public discussion by submitting editorials and letters to the editors to their local newspapers. This level of public interaction keeps the public aware of the devastating cuts that schools have already undergone, as well as the good things that school boards and school personnel have done to try to minimize the impact on students and provide them with the best education possible.
“CSBA is pleased with the participation of board members and their increasing levels of advocacy on behalf of their students and schools. This is truly invaluable and complements our efforts in Sacramento,” said Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Rick Pratt. “Thank you to all of you for the work you do on your boards and the additional efforts to try to protect schools from deep cuts.”
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