No ‘Cuts’ in School Funding, State Says

January 18, 2010

Although education leaders have bemoaned what they call cuts in the governor’s K-12 education budget, state officials insist it continues funding at current levels.

School district administrators say the budget proposal would deny them revenue they’ve been expecting, essentially amounting to a $1.5 billion cut.

A spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this week characterized the gap differently.

"The $1.5 billion is the difference between what they want and what we’re giving them," Aaron McLear said. "Not getting as much as you’d like is not a cut."

More than half of Schwarzenegger’s budget plan of roughly $85 billion is allotted to education, McLear said.

"While we’re cutting everywhere, we are funding education at the same level we did last year, which is about $50 billion of $85 billion," McLear said. "We understand the education community would like to have more than the $50 billion. … We would like to fund all programs at a higher level, but we simply cannot spend money we don’t have."

The governor’s budget proposal would fully fund the Proposition 98 constitutional guarantee, essentially keeping K-12 funding flat, state finance department spokesman H.D. Palmer said. It also calls for no midyear cuts.

The lower-than-expected funding relates to a one-time cut in 2009-10 that would continue in 2010-11 along with a decreased cost-of-living adjustment, said Bryan Richards, finance director for the Mt. Diablo
school district.

"They’re redefining the Prop. 98 (education funding) guarantee that was set in law at $49.1 billion last year," he said. "What the governor is proposing is to break the deal that was made."

The budget back-and-forth depends heavily on interpretations of state laws and how budget shifts will work.

The governor’s budget recognizes a 2008-09 minimum guarantee of $46.8 billion, in part related to Schwarzenegger’s proposal to replace the state gasoline sales tax with an excise tax, according to state Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor.

"The administration’s claim that it is meeting the constitutionally required Proposition 98 minimum guarantee in 2009-10 and 2010-11 is based on its interpretation of the state constitution," Taylor wrote. "Based upon other interpretations of the constitution … the state’s Proposition 98 obligations could be significantly higher."

The Legislature may need to suspend Prop. 98 to fund K-14 education at levels the governor proposed, Taylor wrote. If legislators reject the tax swap idea, Taylor estimates the minimum guarantee would rise by about $800 million.

Schwarzenegger is targeting $1.2 billion of his education plan to savings through consolidating school administrations, $300 million in anticipated savings from allowing districts to contract out for services and $45 million through consolidation of county office of education functions. The chairwoman of the joint legislative budget committee said these proposed cuts belie Schwarzenegger’s positive assertions.

"He’s proposing very specific cuts," state Sen. Denise Ducheny, D-Chula Vista, said. "To say that you’re ‘protecting education’ when you’re doing that is a little disingenuous."

In the coming weeks, state legislators need to get beyond the semantic argument and make difficult decisions to avoid ballooning deficits, state Assemblyman Roger Niello, R-Fair Oaks, said.

"I think all legislators, as much as the governor, want to protect education as much as possible. But what I’m not going to get into is: ‘How do you define protection?’" he said. "I’m quite sure that the education community would only accept the definition that at a minimum we would not reduce any of their expenditures. That’s tough to do under the circumstances."