CTA's legislative efforts in Sacramento won record amounts of state funding for local school districts.
Schools around California are benefiting from $1.84 billion in discretionary funding, a 3.17 percent cost-of-living adjustment (COLA), and funding to cover enrollment growth, thanks to the 2000-2001 state budget signed into law by Gov. Gray Davis June 30 and key implementation bills (called "trailer bills") signed July 5.
Including revisions made to the 1999-2000 budget, the governor's office put the two-year increase for schools, including non-Proposition 98 funding, at nearly 20 percent.
The discretionary funding in the new spending plan was the subject of a landmark agreement between CTA, the governor and lawmakers. The funds are designed to help make up for nearly a decade of state underfunding of public education.
The budget was signed in a ceremony on the state Capitol lawn, marking the first time since 1984 that two back-to-back budgets have been signed into law prior to the midnight June 30 constitutional deadline.
"This is the second budget in a row where education is the first priority," said Gov. Davis. "In my state of the state message, I issued a call to arms to attract teachers. This budget answers the call. This budget includes a 19 percent increase in education spending, including $4.2 billion this year."
"We have fought for and the budget provides important incentives to induce people to remain in teaching and to become teachers in first place. It includes loans for teachers in low performing schools. It includes performance bonuses. And it includes the first in America teacher tax credit," the governor emphasized.
CTA President Wayne Johnson hailed the budget signing as a "great day for public education, students, and teachers throughout California."
"We appreciate the efforts of the governor and lawmakers to provide public education with more of the tools needed to make our schools the best in the nation. We still have far to go to move California's funding toward and beyond the national average, but we have made great progress this year.
"In particular, the right for local parents, teachers, and school officials to decide how to use many of these new dollars will help assure the funding will go to meet locally identified needs," Johnson emphasized. "The deficit reduction funds are going to help our schools continue to move further along the road to excellence."
The governor signed the budget after first reducing some appropriations sent to him by lawmakers. The vast majority of the education spending in the legislative budget sent to the governor remained intact, except for about $200 million in the K-14 budget - including $100 million in community college funding, a K-12 school safety block grant, and some funding targeted for county offices of education and regional occupational centers/programs, according to an education finance expert with Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg's office.
The governor also reduced $5 million of the $7.5 million in the budget for office hours for part-time community college faculty.
Even so, the final spending plan provides about $1.563 billion above the Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantee for 1999-2000 and $1.334 billion above the guarantee for 2000-2001, according to figures from the governor's Department of Finance.
Other key education funding in the budget includes $38.6 billion in Proposition 98 funding, a 9 percent or $3.2 billion increase over the current year. Under the final spending plan, per-student funding rises by $480 from $6,321 in 1999-2000 to $6,801 in 2000-01, a 7.5 percent boost.
The discretionary funds and the 3.17 percent COLA amount to more than a 10 percent increase in funds that districts may decide how to use. The COLA also applies to categorical programs, including special education.
As signed, the budget and its trailer bills also include $55 million to expand the state's minimum teacher salary program. Under terms of the budget and one of the trailer bills, SB 1643, districts gain more flexibility if they take part in the voluntary plan to boost the minimum pay for fully credentialed teachers to $34,000, up from the current $32,000. Districts already paying the minimum $34,000 could use up to $6 per student for other cells on their salary schedules, according to CTA budget analysts.
The budget also includes $218 million to fund the governor's teacher tax credit proposal. That plan provides state income tax credits of $250 for teachers with at least four years of seniority to $1500 for teachers with 20 or more years in the classroom. The funds are designed to help teachers, who have for years traditionally dipped into their own pockets for a range of classroom supplies and materials.
The package also includes a plan that will earmark an amount equivalent to 2 percent of a teacher's salary for a new defined contribution plan to be administered by the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS).
