Budget Experts Outline Education Impacts of Governor’s May Revision
Sacramento, Calif. –The California School Boards Association, in collaboration with the Education Coalition, held a press briefing today to outline and explain the details of Governor Brown’s May State Budget Revision and the deep cuts schools will face without extended tax revenues.
The $3 billion increase in K-14 funding that the governor proposed in his revision would reduce an existing funding deferral for the next school year, but lawmakers still need to pass tax extensions, which are essential to restoring programs and services and preventing further layoffs.
“While the funding available to schools won’t increase as a result of this budget proposal, this is a good first step for the state to decrease the billions of dollars it owes to our schools as a result of ongoing deferrals,” said Rick Pratt, CSBA’s assistant executive director of governmental relations. “Still, to propose that revenue extensions be subject to voter approval at a later, unspecified date is troubling, as it does not resolve the uncertainty facing school districts now as they prepare to meet their legal obligation to adopt their own budgets by June 15.”
If temporary tax extensions are not approved, according to the governor, the ugly consequence would be $5 billion in additional cuts that schools and colleges can’t afford. These cuts would result in further crowding of classrooms, the shortening of a school year that is already one of the shortest in the industrialized world, as well as laying off even more teachers and other educators.
For more information about the state budget and the impact on education, please contact Brittany McKannay at (916) 669-3244.