Delegate Assembly takes a stand on tax initiatives
Support for both measures a move to ‘stop the hemorrhaging’ of education funding
Published: May 23, 2012
CSBA’s Delegate Assembly voted to endorse both November ballot initiatives for education funding during its biannual meeting in Sacramento May 19-20.
While they differ in many respects, both Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act and philanthropist and civil rights lawyer Molly Munger’s proposed Our Children Our Future: Local Schools and Early Education Investment Act would both provide much-needed help to public schools.
Delegates and members of CSBA’s Executive Committee said they were convinced that although neither measure is ideal, both would provide additional funds to preserve basic educational services to California’s 6.2 million schoolchildren. Absent these revenues, schools would be faced with devastating cuts that could decimate crucial programs; in fact, defeat of Brown’s measure could trigger $5.5 billion in cuts to K-14 public education in the middle of the next school year.
“With the release of the May Revision, it’s clear that school-age children stand to lose significantly without new revenue. The school funding crisis is at historic proportions,” explained CSBA President Jill Wynns. “Public schools have sustained more than $20 billion in revenue reductions and deferrals since 2008. Without new revenue, our schools will sustain another $5.5 billion reduction, which may translate into the shortening of the school year by another three weeks.”
Dual endorsement
CSBA is the only statewide educational association to endorse both initiatives, CSBA Executive Vernon M. Billy noted.
“While each initiative presents a different funding scenario for our schools, the bottom line is that both will generate billions of dollars in much-needed revenue for public education,” Billy said. He cautioned, however, that CSBA does not believe either measure represents a permanent fix to the state’s dysfunctional system for financing its cash-strapped public schools.
“The initiatives are stop-gap measures that minimize the hemorrhaging. Ultimately, we need the Legislature to commit to sustained, adequate yearly funding,” Billy said.
According to Billy, CSBA opted for the dual endorsement because schools desperately need funding. Yet CSBA’s leadership wants to make it clear to the public that the governor’s initiative would not provide new funding for schools; instead, it bolsters the state general fund with new revenue, which will stave off cuts—primarily to schools—that would otherwise go into effect if Brown’s measure is defeated in November, and it would pay off some deferred appropriations to schools.
“Under the governor’s plan, schools would get back some of the billions of dollars that were redirected away from them and used to shore up the state’s funding gap in the last budgetary cycle,” Billy said. “The governor’s initiative only restores some of the funds already owed to schools.”
Watch for more coverage of the Delegate Assembly in the June issue of California School News, and visit the Legislative News page on CSBA’s website for updated information on the state budget and related topics—such as Board Member Action Day, a grassroots lobbying day in legislators’ home districts June 8.