Math Error Mars Proposal, Although Fix is Promised
The day after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger released his May Revision, the legislature’s non-partisan analyst, Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill, told reporters that the spending plan included a $364 million error, a shortfall in the amount of funding the state correctly owes to public education.
Schwarzenegger administration officials quickly said that the error would be corrected, but education representatives immediately began working to ensure the correction would be made without cutting base programs.
Below is a review of the May Revision by CTA budget experts:
Proposition 98 Guarantee
• The governor’s May Revision would provide $57.6 billion for Proposition 98 for 2007-08, a 4% increase over the Governor’s January budget proposal.
• The Revision would provide $8,681 in Proposition 98 per pupil expenditures, up from $8,569 in January. The higher figure represents an increase of $112 per student.
• The May Revision reflects a decline of 28,000 K-12 ADA (-0.48%), compared to the projected drop of 23,000 ADA (0.39%) in January.
• The May Revision includes a version of the January proposal to shift funds from the Public Transportation Account to cover the costs of home-to-school transportation. In the May document, however, the shift no longer forces a recalculation (or “rebenching”) of the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee. The May Revision still includes a CalWORKs shift of $269 million.
Major K-12 Programs in the 2007-08 May Revision
• The Revision provides a Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) of 4.53 % (applied to most categorical programs).
• Growth, in general, is continuing in its third year of decline. The May Revision proposes a $293.3 million net reduction in the 2007-08 Budget year to reflect this enrollment drop.
• At the same time, the May Revision includes an adjustment of $41.2 million in the revenue limit to reflect an increase in the attendance estimates for the current Budget year (2006-07).
Special Education
• The May Revision proposes a $35.9 million increase in Proposition 98 funds and a $7.6 million increase in federal funds.
Instructional Materials
• The May Revision’s provisions on instructional materials are unchanged from January except that the proposal now reflects a higher COLA of 4.53%.
Deferred Maintenance
• The May Revision’s provisions on deferred maintenance are unchanged from January except that the proposal now reflects a higher COLA of 4.53%.
Equalization
• The May Revision includes no funding for equalization.
High Priority Schools
• The Governor’s January budget proposal included $243 million for the High Priority Schools program. This was the same amount as the previous year. In the current year (2006-07), only $130 million was spent on the cost of the program, which left a balance of $100 million.
• In the May Revision, the Governor proposes to capture $100 million left over from the 2006-2007 year and to spend it on Teacher Recruitment for Career Technical Education and College Preparatory teachers.
• In the May Revision, the Governor reduces the $243 million to $130 million for the Budget year (2007-08). High Priority Schools see a net decrease of $200 million.
SB 1133 (Torlakson) – Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA)
• The Budget includes $300 million to begin paying the $2.9 billion in Proposition 98 settle-up obligations. Of that amount, $268 million will be provided for implementation of SB 1133.
• As a result of the CTA v. Schwarzenegger settlement, the Community Colleges will receive $32 million to improve and expand the number of career technical education programs and course offerings.
Mandates
• The May Revision includes no additional dollars for mandates for the 2007-08 Budget year. (The Revision proposes to “defer” them.)
Newly Proposed Programs - One-Time Dollars
• The May Revision provides $100 million for Career Technical Equipment.
• The Revision includes a $100 million block grant for a three-year pilot program to build the structure and support for providing an environment of safety in California schools. The plan would establish a competitive grant process through the County Offices for a one-time purpose. An additional $9 million in ongoing dollars would go for school resource officers and $2 million in one-time funds would underwrite summer programs to reduce gang violence.
• The Revision provides $65 million to support efforts to implement CalPADS and CalTIDES for school districts’ data tracking systems, based on each district’s training and other pre-implementation needs. These dollars will be distributed to school districts by FCMAT and CSIS.
• The revision includes $48.1 million to address current year and past year deficits in supplemental instruction.
• The budget update provides $20 million for English Learner supplemental material grants.
• The plan includes $11.1 million to establish permanently the California Fresh Start Program, a student nutrition program.
• The plan provides $8.5 million for County Offices of Education to provide educational services (including $4.3 million for ongoing program activities and $4.2 million for one-time implementation activities) and technical assistance to schools and districts to ensure that the newly established nutrition standards are met.
• The proposal includes $8.5 million for County Offices of Education to provide school districts with instructional assistance that will help high school students pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).
• The Revision includes $4.4 million to provide School Breakfast Startup Grants. This amount would fund an estimated 501 grants.
Programs Enhanced with Ongoing Dollars
The Revision also provides:
• $50 million for the second phase of a three-year initiative to expand preschool opportunities for 4-year olds attending schools ranked in the lowest three deciles.
• $50 million for grants to school districts to support hiring more than 1,000 additional credentialed career technical teachers.
• $50 million to fund grants to school districts to support hiring additional teachers of college preparatory courses (A-G courses) to assist more students to attend college.
• $12 million total for the newly proposed Encorps Program, which would recruit and train experienced retirees to the teaching corps.
• $7.5 million to fund the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing (CCTC), which would develop a variety of incentives for teachers credentialed in other subject areas to become authorized to teach science and math.
• $3 million to continue funding for the Personnel Management Assistance Teams pursuant to SB 1209 (Scott).
• $2.5 million to enhance and expand the Administrator Training Program.
• $2 million to fund the Alternative Teacher Compensation Planning Program, pursuant to SB 1209 (Scott).
Policy Issues
• The Governor continues to push for extending the sunset date for 2nd grade testing. (Editor’s note: the current authorization phases out this June.)
• The Governor’s May Revision proposes to privatize EdFund, the state’s student loan guarantee agency. The state would realize $980 million in one-time funds from the sale.
• The Governor also proposes privatizing the California State Lottery. However, this proposal is not part of the 2007-08 Budget. Discussions, debates and negotiations are to be held before any specific agreements occur.
• The Governor continues to propose reducing the state’s contribution to the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account (SBMA) to the State Teachers Retirement System (STRS). This proposal would reduce the state’s contribution to the SBMA by $75 million annually.
Teacher Tax Credit for the 2007-08 Budget
The Governor continues the proposal to eliminate the Teacher Tax Credit.
Community Colleges
Current Year Adjustments (2006-07)
The May Revision proposes a one-time Proposition 98 General Fund policy increase of $100 million from amounts owed for the current year guarantee. These amounts are:
• $50 million for career technical equipment.
• $50 million for grants to colleges for equipment and other one-time uses for the nursing program.
Budget Year (2007-08)
The May Revision proposes:
• A COLA of 4.53%, extending it to some selected categoricals.
• An $80 million base reduction in apportionments to reflect excess current year and prior year growth funding.
• A $10 million allocation to the Matriculation Program schedule.
For more information, contact CTA GR Communications Consultant Len Feldman at lfeldman@cta.org.