CSBA, Education Coalition press for new revenue—not cuts and new funding formulas
‘Just say no’ to more school cuts, speakers at capital press conference urge
Published: March 13, 2012
Representatives from CSBA and other members of the Education Coalition hosted press conferences in Sacramento and the Bay Area March 13—two days before the deadline for notifying teachers they may be laid off next year—to underscore their opposition to the governor’s 2012-13 budget proposals and their demand for new revenue to compensate schools for $20 billion in cuts over the last four years.
The briefings featured appearances by CSBA President Jill Wynns, a school board member in the San Francisco Unified School District, and Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Meyers, as well as leaders from the Association of California School Administrators, California Teachers Association, California School Employees Association and California State PTA.
Earlier this month, the Coalition came out against Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to replace categorical funds with a “weighted student formula” for distributing special program money based on the number of English learners and low-income students they serve. It “is designed to achieve a number of laudable goals,” the March 6 statement acknowledged, but because categorical programs have not been fully funded for years, the governor’s formula “is simply a redirection of resources at the lowest funding point in the last decade.”
Now is “the worst possible time” to make drastic changing in funding formulas, according to the Coalition, because it “would essentially make permanent the $20 billion in cuts” that schools have already absorbed in the last four years. Brown had packaged his approach to weighted student funding in his 2012-13 budget proposal, but the Coalition urges lawmakers to convene hearings to carefully consider the implications of such a drastic funding change—and the Coalition press package includes a position paper, data charts and other materials supporting its stance.
At the Sacramento press conference, CSBA’s Meyers told reporters that the Coalition also opposes Brown’s plan to impose trigger cuts if his proposed tax initiative fails to win passage this November. The governor’s is one of three tax initiatives vying to come before voters this fall, provided backers can gather enough signatures to qualify them for the ballot.
The impact of the governor’s “draconian” trigger cuts, Meyers said, would fall disproportionately on K-12 schools. The Coalition estimates that these cuts would amount to $450 per student—on top of crushing reductions already made to local school budgets. Meyers said LEAs have no choice but to plan for the worst. Recent headlines detailing the thousands of pink slips being sent to educators throughout the state indicate that LEAs are doing just that.
“This is the second time we’ve faced a trigger, and the first trigger was pulled,” said Meyers. “We have to take it seriously. This is reality for us.”
ACSA Executive Director Bob Wells said if the governor’s or any competing tax measures qualify for the ballot, the Coalition will “mobilize” to pass them. But he also called on lawmakers to “just say no” to the trigger and any further cuts to schools, regardless of the fate of any of the tax initiatives now being promoted.