Jerry Brown's School Funding Plan Runs Into Lawmakers' Concerns

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Sacramento Bee (California)

May 19, 2013 Sunday

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HEADLINE: Gov. Brown's school funding plan runs into lawmakers' concerns

BYLINE: David Siders and Phillip Reese; [email protected]

BODY:

Gov. Jerry Brown had hardly finished presenting his annual budget revisionlast week before state Sen. Ted Lieu lit up on Twitter with a burst of criticismof a major part of the plan, a bid to shift more state aid to poor andEnglish-learning students.

"Instead of working together to help all kids," said Lieu, D-Torrance,Brown's funding formula "pits teacher against teacher, community againstcommunity, parent against parent."

Assemblywoman Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, convened a hearing on the matter in theAssembly Education Committee the next day, and Senate President Pro Tem DarrellSteinberg, D-Sacramento, reiterated his own reservations about the proposal. Hesaid lawmakers will model the effect of Brown's education proposal "region byregion, district by district."

In many ways, resistance to Brown's proposal to overhaul California's schoolfinancing system is a function of simple math.

Though a majority of California's more than 6 million schoolchildren live inurban and rural districts expected to benefit from Brown's proposal, all but ahandful of lawmakers who will vote on the measure represent at least one schooldistrict identified by the Department of Education as a potential loser.

"If a district defines itself as a winner or loser, right or wrong, that'swhat these lawmakers are going to care about," said Kevin Gordon, a longtimeeducation lobbyist. "It's what drives a lot of the skepticism."

Brown was on the defensive last week, laboring to "clarify some commonmisperceptions" about his plan. He said the most controversial part of his

proposal - to provide money to especially needy districts at the expense ofwealthier ones - would amount to just 4 percent of total spending, with the restdistributed on a per-pupil basis partly to all students and partly todisadvantaged students statewide.

Brown dismissed a California Department of Education projection that morethan half of state school districts could receive less money under this formulathan they might under existing law. In his annual budget revision Tuesday, hecalled it a "very small part" of his plan.

That Brown was forced to address the matter at all suggests how difficultdistrict-level considerations may be for the Democratic governor to overcome.

Asked if he thought he had done enough to mollify resistant lawmakers, Brownsaid, "I think the idea in a Democratic Legislature of helping the lessadvantaged is very persuasive."

Brown has endeavored to minimize district-by-district comparisons.

While criticizing the Department of Education analysis for its reliance onuncertain funding assumptions, the administration has refused to endorse acomparison of its own. Because of the complexities of school finance and theuncertainty of future political decisions, officials said it is impossible toaccurately project how school funding would be allocated if Brown's proposal isnot adopted.

Brown said no school district would receive less money under his plan than itdoes now, only that some districts with greater funding needs will do"considerably better" than others.

Legislators not reassured

For many lawmakers, that assurance is insufficient. The Department ofEducation analysis, said Buchanan, is "a big deal."

Buchanan, who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, is one of two Assemblymembers, along with Diane Harkey, R-Dana Point, who represent areas in whichevery school district would receive less than they otherwise might.

"It's a struggle for me, because I completely understand what the governor'strying to do," Buchanan said. "You can talk to people in my district who say, 'Ican understand not getting as much, but we want our kids to have textbooks.' "

Like Steinberg, Buchanan has called for a greater proportion of the $1.9billion Brown proposes to spend next year on restructuring the education systemto be distributed statewide.

Brown did not offer such a concession in his budget revision, but he did moveto please education interests in other ways. He proposed accelerating therepayment to local school districts of state aid deferred in previous years, andhe offered $1 billion in one-time funding to help implement English, math andother education standards.

Brown offered to increase first-year spending overall on his education planby $240 million, and he included about $218 million in continued funding forpopular regional occupational centers and home-to-school transportation

Gov. Brown's school funding plan runs into lawmakers' concerns Sacramento Bee

(California) May 19, 2013 Sunday

programs.

He left intact his proposal to eliminate most of California's categoricalfunds - money that can be used only for certain purposes - in an effort to givelocal districts greater flexibility in how they spend state money.

Following the release of a counterproposal last month, Senate Democratsreleased a list of school districts they said would not qualify for additionalfunding under Brown's plan, despite containing individual schools with highpoverty.

Among districts on the list was Folsom Cordova Unified School District, whichincludes wealthy neighborhoods of Folsom and poorer pockets of Rancho Cordova.

"We're the losers," said Rhonda Crawford, the district's chief financialofficer. "All of us in education, I think we all agree that something needs tobe done and he's on the right track with this, but it's just that we, as one ofthe districts that is severely impacted by this, we just are asking for just alittle extra time to look at the formulas and look at those discrepanciesbetween districts."

Folsom Cordova expects to receive as much as $700 less per student thanallowed by existing law under the governor's formula by the time it is fullyimplemented, or about $12 million annually, Crawford said.

"It's just not good for kids," she said.

Assemblyman Ken Cooley, the Rancho Cordova Democrat who represents the area,said that with Brown's proposal so closely following years of budget cuts tolocal schools, "I think what Californians expect is to see sort of broad-basedimprovement in education. A scenario where you have truly winners and losersis not right."

Some areas benefit greatly

Brown's proposal would generally be more advantageous for urban and ruralschool districts than for wealthier, suburban ones. In some of California'spoorest areas, the benefit may be great.

The massive Bakersfield City School District, where about 84 percent ofstudents are low-income, could receive more than $1,000 more per student underBrown's funding formula than under existing law, according to the Department ofEducation analysis. Wasco Union Elementary School District, where nearly 90percent of students are low-income, could receive more than $1,800 per studentmore.

"That 4 percent for these districts like Wasco is huge," said MichaelHulsizer, chief deputy for government affairs at the Kern County Office ofEducation.

Michael W. Kirst, president of the state Board of Education and a StanfordUniversity professor emeritus who co-wrote a 2008 paper that became the modelfor Brown's proposal, said district-level comparisons have contributed to a"political battle" and distracted focus from broader policy concerns.

"You can manipulate assumptions to show anything, but the proposal that's out



there by the governor is out there, and not the alternative assumptions aboutthe future that make it look bad," he said.

Kirst said opposition may be overstated. Budget negotiations between thegovernor and lawmakers are only now beginning, and Kirst said changes Brown madein the budget revision may help some districts enough to satisfy the lawmakersrepresenting them.

Still, Kirst said, "You can't make everybody 100 percent happy. There aretradeoffs in any school finance plan unless you have just all the money in theworld."

Call David Siders, Bee Capitol Bureau, (916) 321-1215. Follow him on Twitter@davidsiders . Jim Sanders and Melody Gutierrez of The Bee Capitol Bureaucontributed to this report.

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Jerry Brown's School Funding Plan Runs Into Lawmakers' Concerns

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