May Revision may provide needed relief for schools
CSBA analysis: K-12 again at risk if voters reject governor’s revenue initiative
Published: May 31, 2012
If legislators adopt Gov. Jerry Brown’s 2012-13 budget as updated in the May Revision that Brown released last month, schools districts could see an increase in funding—some relief from the $20 billion barrage of cuts and deferrals that public schools have weathered since 2008.
If the governor’s revenue initiative fails at the polls, however, a new round of trigger cuts would take effect—costing K-12 schools $5.5 billion in the middle of the school year.
“While we applaud the governor for his efforts to support public education in the May Revision,” CSBA President Jill Wynns said, the threat of midyear cuts “is concerning, given that public schools have taken a disproportionately high percentage of budget cuts and deferrals since the state’s economic decline.”
“If schools shoulder the brunt of the cuts proposed in the May Revision, school districts will be forced to take drastic action. Students are already losing out on valuable instructional time and learning,” CSBA Executive Director Vernon M. Billy warned. “The projected additional $5.5 billion funding shortfall translates into three weeks off the school year. What are the learning implications for students? What will working parents do with their children, especially at a time when few public schools can afford to provide summer school or other summertime enrichment programs?”
Citing districts’ Second Interim Reports, released by the California Department of Education last month, Billy added: “We have never seen so many public schools teetering on the brink of disaster due to deep state revenue reductions [and deferrals]. More districts could find themselves in this predicament if the trigger cuts take effect.”
Because each would add much-needed revenue to schools, CSBA’s Delegate Assembly last month endorsed both revenue initiatives expected to be on the November ballot—Brown’s Schools and Local Public Safety Protection Act and philanthropist and attorney Molly Munger’s Our Children Our Future: Local Schools and Early Education Investment Act (see related story).
The following summarizes a detailed analysis of the May Revision by CSBA’s Governmental Relations Department. The full analysis is available on CSBA’s website, along with extended comments from Wynns and Billy.
Growing deficit
Weaker than expected revenues in the current year, coupled with unrealized savings and a slight bump in Proposition 98’s minimum funding guarantee for education, account for a sizeable increase in the state’s projected deficit—from $9 billion in the January budget proposal to nearly $16 billion today.
Prop. 98, deferrals
The good news in the governor’s revised budget proposal is that Proposition 98’s minimum funding guarantee for education would increase by $6.7 billion. The bad news: $2.9 billion of that hinges largely on passage of the governor’s initiative. More good news: K-12 deferrals would be paid down $2.2 billion. More bad news: that down payment on the deferrals relies, again, on voter approval of Brown’s initiative. With other adjustments, the net result of the initiative’s defeat would cut school funding approximately $441 per unit of average daily attendance—up substantially from the $377 per-ADA reduction proposed in January.
Weighted student funding
Brown’s May Revision adjusts his proposed weighted student funding formula, which is intended to simplify how schools are funded and provide local governing boards with additional flexibility. Base grants per pupil would amount to $5,466 in grades K-3 (includes K-3 class-size-reduction funds); $4,934 in 4-6; $5,081 in 7-8; and $5,887 in 9-12.
Supplemental grants equal to 20 percent of the above amounts would be awarded for each English learner student or each student who qualifies for free or reduced-price meals; students counted in one category would not count in the other. A concentration factor would slightly increase appropriations where at least 50 percent of students qualify for the supplemental grants.
Home-to-School Transportation Program and Targeted Instructional Improvement Grant money would be counted as an add-on, allowing those districts that receive those funds to continue to receive them but with full flexibility on their use.
The weighted formula would be suspended if the governor’s revenue initiative fails, and otherwise phased in over seven years; the phase-in would be delayed in future years if Proposition 98 funding falls short of predetermined annual growth thresholds.
A hold-harmless provision to protect districts from losing funding under the new formula would be in place in 2012-13 only. CSBA urges the governor to postpone implementation of the proposed formula pending further study.
“We don’t need any schools receiving even less funding. We need them receiving as much money as possible to continue to make progress on student learning goals and to provide a quality education to students,” Wynns said. “It’s time the Legislature prioritize our children, or we as a state will suffer the ramifications.”
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