State of the State looks back on 2013, ahead to 2014
Published: January 1, 2014
The challenges and opportunities awaiting public schools in 2014 became clearer during the State of the State, the panel discussion that concludes each AEC, moderated by CSBA Executive Director & CEO Vernon M. Billy.
The 2014-15 state budget debate—already under way, with Gov. Jerry Brown’s spending proposal due by Jan. 10—will once again have a major impact on local school board agendas, even after the current budget transformed K-12 finances through the Local Control Funding Formula. So will the Common Core State Standards, especially with field tests this spring of their new computerized assessments. New teacher dismissal legislation, school construction financing and other business also await.
Fresh challenges to local control
Speakers agreed the new school funding formula, with its emphasis on raising the achievement of English learners, students from low-income families and foster youth, changed public education in California in fundamental ways. However, crucial regulatory details remain to be determined by the State Board of Education (see related story); employee bargaining units, civil rights groups and others will also press for their own priorities and, as Billy and others warned, even for the return of categorical program restrictions on how the money is used.
Still, “local control” and “funding” were popular terms at the State of the State. CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Governmental Relations Dennis Meyers reached back to his own election to a term on the governing board of West Sacramento’s Washington Unified School District in 1981, remembering, “The first thing I realized was how important local control was. The second? We don’t have any.”
It’s a different story today. LCFF, did away with dozens of categorical programs, and the passage of Proposition 30 in 2012 protected schools from the drastic funding cuts that had become common in recent years—but that doesn’t mean an end to conflict and controversy.
“You all have people knocking on your door thinking you’ve got bags of money now,” noted Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors Group LLC and a frequent State of the State panelist. Between groups agitating for broader state control over how LCFF funding is used and school labor groups pressing for increased pay and benefits after years of belt tightening, Gordon said, “The perception of this money creates more conflict, frankly, than the years we were broke.”
“We endured midyear cuts and then annual cuts thereafter,” agreed Billy. “We need to be very careful so we don’t fall back into that situation.”
CSBA, ACSA: Working together
Wes Smith, Ed.D., the new executive director of the Association of California School Administrators and a first-time State of the State panelist, saw LCFF and other issues as good reasons for his association and CSBA—and all of the groups’ members—to work together to defend recent gains and press for other improvements in state policy.
CSBA and ACSA collaborated on LCFF and other legislation—most notably the late-breaking advocacy campaign against what Billy called an “egregious” union-backed bill that would have put children at risk by limiting governance teams’ ability to properly investigate allegations of teacher misconduct.
The state Legislature passed Assembly Bill 375 late in the legislative year, and sent it to the governor. Undaunted, CSBA and ACSA lobbied and mobilized their members to urge a veto—and ultimately succeeded.
“We need to get on the same page, amplify our voices and make a difference in the Capitol,” Smith said. Teamwork on teacher discipline appears likely, as well as more funding for the estimated $1 billion-plus unfunded cost for local implementation of the Common Core standards and their computerized assessment systems as one fruitful issue for collaborative action.
The new state budget may provide more common ground. There is more money in the state’s general fund now than there had been, according to the Legislative Analyst’s Office, and the recovering economy will boost 2014-15 revenues even more. Longtime State of the State panelist Ron Bennett, CEO of School Services of California Inc., contrasted that with the recent years of drastic spending cuts that sent California lower and lower in the rankings of per-pupil funding. “The revenue-limit money was barely enough to pay our employees and keep the lights on,” Bennett commented. He warned of continuing, structural budget problems, such as the state’s reliance on volatile upper-level income taxes and the expiration of Proposition 30’s temporary taxes later in the decade. These and other topics—such as the need for a statewide school construction bond in 2014—will be among the issues percolating in Sacramento throughout the year. CSBA’s executive director closed AEC 2013 with inspiration from a world leader whose passing, sadly, coincided with AEC: Nelson Mandela, the South African who prevailed through decades of imprisonment to lead his country’s continuing crusade for civil rights.
“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,” Billy said, quoting Mandela. “So let’s go change the world, starting today.”