On behalf of the statewide Education Coalition, CTA representatives appeared before the Senate Budget and Fiscal Review Subcommittee on Education March 15 to urge the panel to accept a state budget that includes the school funding agreement reached between the coalition and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
If approved by the Legislature and signed into law as part of the new budget, the agreement would provide schools with a cost-of-living adjustment on all programs and full funding for growth for the 2004-05 fiscal year as well as full funding for student enrollment increases. It would protect public education from devastating mid-year funding cuts and shield schools from being asked to contribute a larger share of the money needed to bridge the state's $15 billion budget gap.
In addition, the agreement would increase the Proposition 98 constitutional guaranteed base for funding in future years by the $2 billion owed to schools but not paid over the past decade. Schools would receive the funds after the state's economy recovers.
CTA and other members of the Education Coalition, which includes organizations representing parents, teachers, school board members, administrators and school employees, have been working to implement budget principles adopted by CTA's State Council of Education.
The principles call on lawmakers to adopt a state spending plan that:
- Prevents devastating mid-year budget cuts;
- Protects the base revenue limit funding;
- Provides a COLA and growth increases for all categorical programs;
- And protects the integrity of Prop. 98 funding guarantees.
The testimony before the Senate subcommittee comes as lawmakers in both houses work to finalize a budget proposal. The budget deliberations generally become most intense right after the governor's Finance Department releases its updated estimates of revenues and expenditures- known as the May Revise - around May 15.
The state Constitution requires the Legislature to send the governor a final document no later than June 15. The governor has until June 30 to sign the measure into law, a day before the start of the new fiscal year.
That deadline has been missed more often than met over the past decade, but it may be different this year as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said that an on-time budget is a high priority for him.
Len Feldman
