By Len Feldman
CTA and the Education Coalition are working to secure the enactment of a new state budget and post-budget legislation that will fully fund Proposition 98 and keep Gov. Schwarzenegger's promises to students, teachers, and public schools. To meet these goals, the budget and revenue measures would need to provide $3.1 billion in additional funds above the governor's proposed spending level for 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Bolstered by a successful tax amnesty program, California's revenues rose by more than $6.4 billion dollars last year. Still, the governor is refusing to honor his promise to repay funds he borrowed from public education during 2004-05 or to provide schools with their fair share of new revenues.
The governor's budget proposal includes no new funds for schools and would short public education an estimated $3.1 billion over two years. "Like his movies, this budget has lots of special effects, but there's no substance in it," says CTA President Barbara E. Kerr. "Many of the programs are funded with one-time-only funds or money that's already owed to schools. The governor's only long-term budget solution is an initiative that would gut Proposition 98 minimum funding guarantees for schools and reduce base funding by $4 billion a year."
By failing to address the ongoing fiscal shortfalls in districts, she adds, the budget proposal guarantees more school closures, larger class sizes, program cutbacks and staff layoffs. "Students deserve better."
Democratic lawmakers have been making it clear that they will not support his education proposals and do not believe his spending plan is balanced in the long term.
Senate President Pro Tempore Don Perata (D-Oakland) and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez (D-Los Angeles) have been heading efforts to secure the passage of a budget and budget-related bills supported by CTA.
They are also working for passage of a proposal that would restore the income tax rates approved by former Governors Ronald Reagan and Pete Wilson, which would generate $3.1 billion more for schools. The rate restoration would affect only California's wealthiest taxpayers.
