01/20/04 -- California's public schools will be spared from mid-year budget cuts and are guaranteed a cost-of-living increase next year under a state spending plan agreed to by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state education groups, including the California School Boards Association (CSBA).
The budget deal offers the state's financially beleaguered schools some needed financial stability, but it comes with a high price tag: Education leaders agreed to accept the temporary suspension of Proposition 98, a state budget measure that would have provided K-12 schools with $4 billion in additional funds next year.
Instead, school leaders agreed to the governor's plan to pay for cost-of-living increases and costs associated with enrollment growth, which along with other programs is estimated to boost education spending next year by about $2 billion.
Such concessions are necessary because the state is facing an estimated $15 billion budget deficit, which made it almost certain that education would see cuts in state spending, says Rick Pratt, CSBA's assistant executive director.
By accepting some funding cuts up front, Pratt says, educators "inoculate ourselves from even deeper cuts."
At a Jan. 8 press conference where he appeared with Schwarzenegger, CSBA President David Pollock said the agreement would avoid a "free fall" in state education funding. "We know that education must share the pain, but in our talks with the governor we consistently stressed the need to keep these cuts as far from the classroom as possible," Pollock says.
The spending compromise, which is included in the governor's proposed $76 billion 2004-05 budget, would boost per-student spending next year by an estimated $200, some budget analysts predict. The plan still must be approved by the state legislature.
Across the state, many school leaders received news of the budget deal with relief. The state's ailing economy has played havoc with school budgets for the past two years, forcing school systems to lay off teachers, increase class sizes, and make painful cuts in other areas.
Yet, others criticized the governor and legislature for failing to maintain adequate support for public education.
"It looks like we have a slightly smaller hole to dig ourselves out of," says Richard Van Der Laan, spokesperson for the Long Beach Unified School District.
The Long Beach school system, which faces a projected $20 million deficit on its $800 million budget, could receive an additional $9 million next year under the governor's plan -- if current budget projections are accurate, Van Der Laan says.
"We're not out of the woods yet," he says. "What we'll be trying to do is tighten the belt without harming classroom instruction, but we've run out of easy solutions."