Vantage point: Budget sets the stage: Engage, educate, inform
By:
Martha Fluor
Published: February 1, 2011
In last month’s column, I wrote that school board members are in a unique position to engage with our constituents and represent the interests of children at the state and federal level. I went on to say that it was up to us to tell state leaders and legislators that when it comes to proper funding for public schools, the time has come for them to put their money where their mouths are.
Little did I know how quickly we would need to jump into the fray. As I write this, the ink is barely dry on Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed state budget for 2011-12, but it’s already clear that even the best-case scenarios will present major challenges to our ability to serve our children and our communities.
On the plus side, it’s clear the governor understands the importance of public K-12 education to the future of California. More importantly, his budget recognizes that education has borne a disproportionate share of reductions in recent years. That’s not news to us, but the governor’s acknowledgment of the fact is a welcome development.
But that’s not to say that his budget proposal is “good” for schools. It’s probably more accurate to say that it could have been much worse. And what’s really scary is that it could get a lot worse, because much of it is contingent upon getting voters’ agreement in June to extend a number of temporary taxes. Placing that question on the ballot will require the Legislature to act within the next several weeks. That may sound like plenty of time, but when budget negotiations are involved it’s barely a blip on the radar, and battle lines are already being drawn.
Where we as school board members enter the equation is on the need for us to immediately begin talking with our state legislators to get them to understand two very important points:
- While we appreciate not getting cut further, flat funding at current state levels will feel like cuts to a lot of school districts and county offices of education; many have benefited from federal funds that will be going away, and the costs to run our schools, and to pay and provide benefits for our employees, will not remain static. Even with a status quo budget, we’re going to lose ground.
- The rhetoric of “protecting education” may resonate richly under the Capitol dome, but it can ring hollow for concerned parents back home, or for districts and county offices that are barely scraping by as it is now.
We must educate people—both in Sacramento and in our communities—on the decisions that we’re facing in the next few months. We will need to make very painful staffing decisions in March, for example, when our revenue levels will be far from certain.
Engage, educate, inform. That is what we must be doing at all times, both with higher levels of government and with our own employees, our parents, our communities. Our future depends on it.