Survey Indicates Many School Districts and County Offices of Education Based Budgets on Governor’s May Revision, No Cuts to Education
Sacramento, Calif. -- Nearly half of school districts and county offices of education responding to a survey conducted by the California School Boards Association indicate that they followed Governor Jerry Brown's advice to plan their budgets on the basis of the May Revision. In response to questions from reporters at the May Revision press conference on May 16, both Governor Brown and his Director of Finance Ana Matosantos emphasized that school districts should base their budgets for the next school year on the basis of the level of funding proposed by the governor. By law, local school district budgets must be adopted by the end of next week.
"This raises the stakes for schools and underscores the importance of Governor Brown fulfilling his promise to protect school funding from further cuts," said Martha Fluor, CSBA's president.
In the wake of last week's veto of the budget bills, and the failure to get the Republican votes needed to temporarily extend existing tax rates, educators are concerned that the result could be an "all cuts budget" that would further reduce school funding. Fluor stated that keeping his pledge to protect schools from additional cuts should take priority to keeping his pledge on taxes.
"The fact that so many districts followed his advice in adopting their budgets makes it even more imperative that the governor follow through on his promise to schools by rejecting any budget that cuts school funding," Fluor said.
With more than a quarter of districts and county offices responding, 48 percent reported they took the governor's advice to budget based on the May Revision. Administration documents suggest that an all-cuts budget could result in the suspension of the Proposition 98 minimum funding requirement and a cut of about $5 billion, or more than $800 per student. However, only 4 percent of poll respondents assumed a cut of more than $350 per student.