California’s Brown Grappling With K-12 Funding Solutions (CA)

May 6, 2011

Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to fix California’s budget woes without cutting K-12 spending has gone awry, Education Week reports. When he took office, Brown proposed a two-pronged solution that would close part of the state’s budget deficit via reduction in spending, and would allow residents to vote on tax increases to cover the short fall in education funding.

The legislature implemented part of the plan by making steep cuts in services for the poor, developmentally disabled and the elderly. Universities, parks and other programs also saw their funding greatly reduced. However, Brown has been unable to get the required number of GOP votes in the state senate or the state assembly to get the two-thirds majority required to place the items on the ballot.

Currently, Brown is pursuing a publicity campaign aimed at convincing some Republicans to support the ballot initiative. He is also considering trying to get the measure before voters in the fall by collecting signatures on a petition. He hopes the new taxes will raise the required $15 billion need to fully fund California’s schools.

But some critics, like state Senator Bob Huff, are accusing the governor of using scare tactics in order to raise the residents’ tax burdens. Huff said that the governor’s focus should be on getting school districts to make serious money-saving changes like hiring private contractors for non-instructional jobs and implementing merit pay for teachers instead of granting automatic increases. He also pointed out that one of the things inflating the educational costs is the state’s retirement obligations and that a pension overhaul should be a priority.

    “In the public schools, we tend to march on, business as usual, doing things that hurt kids,” Sen. Huff said. “We’ve gotten so lopsided in the way that we fund government” and education.