Any state spending limit proposal must protect funding for students and schools, warn CTA and the Education Coalition.
The coalition, a lobbying group that includes CTA and most of the major players in the education community, is working with the Legislature and the new governor to address two major goals: restoring the financial integrity of the state and providing adequate funding for public schools.
However, the initial spending cap plan proposed by state Finance Director Donna Arduin is not only diametrically opposed to the voters' intentions approved in Proposition 98, it also runs counter to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's promises to make children his top priority and protect school funding from state budget cuts.
As the initial spending cap proposal stood at press time, it would limit all future funding for education. In addition, it would eliminate the Prop. 98 provision under which school funding shares the pain in difficult budget years, but is made whole again when the state's revenues improve. If the state stops paying schools back, they would lose an estimated $2 billion on an ongoing basis. "That's the same as cutting $10,000 per classroom, reducing ADA funds by more than $330 per student, or eliminating one out of every six teachers across the state - every year," says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. "This is in addition to the $4 billion in funding cuts our students and schools have suffered over the past two years."
Unlike the voter-approved Gann Spending Limit, which earmarks 50 percent of excess revenues for education, the spending cap would actually prohibit the use of such money for education except in an emergency.
The spending cap would, in effect, lock in education spending at a level far below the national average. "California's constitution clearly stipulates that the state should rank among the top 10 states in funding for students and schools," says Kerr. "The proposed cap would guarantee this would never happen."