CTA and school supporters have prevailed in recent weeks in the ongoing fight to secure full funding for public education in the 2008-09 state budget.
CTA and the Education Coalition, which represent millions of teachers, parents, school management, and school employees, pressed lawmakers to boost spending in both the Assembly and Senate versions of the state budget. The fiscal subcommittees in both houses responded, boosting proposed education spending in the two legislative versions above the amounts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“We are heartened by actions taken by Assembly and Senate Democrats to restore the horrific education cuts the governor has proposed,” says CTA President David A. Sanchez. “We are urging CTA members to continue contacting the governor and lawmakers and telling these officials how these cuts are hurting our students and our schools.”
Representatives of the coalition have been briefing lawmakers and reporters about the devastating effects of the governor’s education cuts on schools and students throughout the state.
They have been reminding lawmakers that while Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s May Revision no longer suspends Proposition 98, it still contains $4.3 billion in education cuts. Coalition representatives stress that the governor’s revised budget would reduce schools’ cost-ofliving adjustment by $3.1 billion, cut categorical funding by $900 million, and slash community college appropriations by $300 million.
The Legislature has reversed most of those cuts in its pending budget versions. In fact, fiscal subcommittees in the Assembly and the Senate are sending budget versions to a twohouse conference committee that would provide education spending levels more than $2.3 billion higher than the level in the updated budget proposal the governor released in May.
Where the governor’s May Revision would provide schools with $56.8 billion in Proposition 98 funding, the current Assembly version would provide $59.05 billion and the Senate version would provide $59.77 billion.
Where the governor’s May Revision would provide no cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) and would reduce categorical program funding overall by more than 6.5 percent, both legislative versions reject the categorical program cuts and include partial COLA funding.
Both versions also fully fund the Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA), an effort to aid California’s schools of greatest need.
While the two legislative budget versions have some technical differences, their only major differences involve the COLA and total amount of funding each contains.
The Assembly version funds the COLA at 1.6 percent and creates a 3.626 percent “deficit factor” for the remainder of the COLA. By contrast, the Senate version provides a 3.68 percent COLA and establishes a “deficit factor” to fund the rest. The Senate version also contains — overall — about $700 million more than the Assembly subcommittee version approved on May 30.
The differences between the two versions and the total amount of funding will eventually be worked out in the joint conference committee. Ultimately, that panel will send back to the Assembly and the Senate a single version for lawmakers’ approval.
Neither budget version — as yet — identifies where the additional revenues will come from, although both houses have explored a variety of means to raise the funds. Both Assembly and Senate Democrats have expressed support for a number of revenue-raising actions, but none of these plans as yet has gained any support from Assembly and Senate Republicans. In fact, Republican lawmakers have repeatedly asserted that they can balance the budget without raising any new funds.
Ultimately, the greatest challenge facing both houses will be to secure the two-thirds majorities in the Senate and the Assembly that are required to send a final legislative spending plan to the governor.
The state constitution requires lawmakers to send their final plan to the governor by June 15. The constitution also requires the governor to sign the budget prior to the July 1 start of the new fiscal year. Both deadlines have often been missed.
Len Feldman
