Legislative Budget Skirmish
Thanks to CTA efforts, teachers and other school-site council members are expected have a say in how local school districts spend the largest portion of more than $1 billion in expected new one-time funding.
In his May budget proposal, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger earmarked most of that new one-time funding for specific programs, but at the urging of CTA and other school groups, a key legislative committee voted to send the funds out to schools with fewer strings attached and with the proviso that school site councils be involved in deciding how the funds should be used.
Specifically, the joint Assembly and Senate Budget Conference Committee, which is charged with forging a single legislative budget from the competing Senate and Assembly versions, sided with more local control. The conferees agreed to put the one-time funds into a block grant and to give school sites the power to allocate 75% of the new funding. Districts were given the power to allocate the additional 25%.
The Conference Committee also specified that the new funds should be used for items including instructional materials, deferred maintenance, art and music supplies, and fiscal solvency.
The state constitution sets two major budget-related deadlines: the June 15th deadline for lawmakers to send a spending plan to the governor and the June 30th deadline for the governor to sign the measure into law. The constitution provides no penalties when the deadlines are missed.
The state's new fiscal year begins on July 1, 2006.