Final Budget Protects Key Programs
SACRAMENTO-For more than seven months, CTA and education advocates battled repeated attempts by some lawmakers to close the state's gaping $38.2 billion deficit hole by making massive education cuts. Those efforts paid off on August 2 when Gov. Gray Davis - bracketed by CTA leaders - signed a new state budget that limits school cuts and keeps them as far away from the classroom as possible.
With the support of Gov. Davis, CTA and its allies were able to hold the school reductions to $1.5 billion and stave off efforts that would have suspended or gutted Proposition 98, the constitutional provision that guarantees schools a modicum of fiscal stability.
"Teachers are relieved that we finally have a state budget in place," said CTA President Kerr. "The signing clears the way for districts to finalize local budgets and get ready for students and teachers in the fall."
Besides paring more than $1.5 billion from K-14 public schools, the spending plan also raises student fees at the community colleges.
"Any cut to education funding is painful, but we commend Gov. Davis for working with teachers to target these budget cuts as far away from the classroom as possible, and for protecting funding for class size reduction, special education and our schools of greatest need," said the CTA leader.
The CTA president also cautioned that schools can't continue to absorb more reductions. "Over the past few years, education funding has been cut by more than $5.5 billion. We've got to find an adequate and stable funding system that avoids the boom and bust cycles of recent years. Without serious reforms in our state budget process, our students and schools will continue to pay the price."
The enactment of the state budget came more than a month after the start of the new fiscal year.
The spending proposal uses a combination of borrowing and programmatic reductions to close all but $8 billion of the budget gap. The governor and lawmakers expect to handle that remaining deficit as part of the 2004-2005 budget deliberations.
It also came after months of partisan wrangling during which time CTA opposed proposals that would have made across-the-board cuts in school spending - instead of targeted cuts - and specifically reduced appropriations for schools of greatest need.
Among its major provisions, the new spending plan is
- Maintaining the integrity of Proposition 98 and providing schools with the minimum level of funding guaranteed by the state constitution.
- Giving school districts the temporary flexibility to shift categorical funds, reduce reserves, and suspend deferred maintenance in order to cope with the instructional reductions.
- Requiring the state to allocate additional resources to public education - a so-called deficit factor - when California's economy turns around.
- Providing $504 million to cover a projected 1.34% increase in student attendance for basic programs and special education. The plan also requires the state to make up in 2005-2006 for the 1.8% Cost-of-Living Adjustment owed but not paid to schools for the 2003-2004 school year.
- Allocating $218 million for the High Priority Schools Grant program, which is designed to help schools with significant numbers of students scoring in the lowest decile on the state's Academic Performance Index.