CSBA addresses ‘troubling’ state budget details
Fiduciary oversight and flexibility limited
Published: July 12, 2011
CSBA continues to seek safeguards that will preserve responsible fiscal oversight of school district budgets and local flexibility in the event midyear cuts are needed as a result of the new state budget.
According to CSBA’s analysis of Assembly Bill 114—a complicated, 100-page trailer bill concerned with the budget’s education provisions, which was hastily drafted and enacted without committee hearings or public input—“Districts are being told to pretend that there is no possibility of a midyear budget cut, even though another bill in the budget package—AB 121—clearly specifies that schools would be cut by nearly $2 billion if revenues come in below estimates. Parallel language applies to county office of education budgets.”
Other provisions of AB 114 could limit districts’ ability to lay off certificated personnel—or, in some interpretations, even require districts to rescind existing layoffs, according to the analysis.
“To require school board members to completely ignore the real potential of midyear cuts and disregard their duty to balance local budgets in a reasonable and responsible manner is troubling,” CSBA Executive Director Vernon M. Billy said. “Frankly, we are disappointed that the governing leaders of California’s schools did not have an opportunity to raise concerns and provide input on a bill that greatly affects our students and schools.”
CSBA President Martha Fluor struck a similar tone in a letter urging Gov. Jerry Brown to support changes to AB 114, which Brown signed soon after it reached his desk.
“The already painful need to cut programs and reduce services to students is made even more difficult when the state intrudes on the ability of school boards to manage their own resources. The state should not be substituting its judgment for that of those who live in the communities affected, have fiduciary responsibility for the districts, and are held accountable for student outcomes,” Fluor, a member of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District, wrote.
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