California Must Start Now on School Finances if 2008 is to be the "Year of Education"

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By John Affeldt, Jim Keddy, Solomon Rivera, and Corina Vasaure

Now is the time to develop a roadmap for education funding in California. Our state needs a comprehensive, multi-year plan that prepares all students to succeed in college and our 21st century workforce and that difficult, but all-important work needs to start with this next legislative session.

Although the recently released report from Legislative Analyst Office presents a grim short-term fiscal outlook, the longer view is much more positive. In fact, the LAO projects that between 2009-10 and 2012-13, “K-14 education is projected to benefit from about $7 billion in ongoing funding above baseline costs that could go toward reform.” (“California’s Fiscal Outlook: LAO Projections 2007-08 through 2012-13,” Legislative Analyst Office (November 2007), p. 39.) Given these projections, now is the ideal time for the Legislature and the Governor to begin enacting comprehensive finance reform. Unless we put all schools on track to receive sufficient, equitable and predictable funding, it is unlikely we will ever see the system-wide reforms needed to ensure success for all California students.

Our collaborative, Parents and Students for Great Schools, is urging the Legislature and the Governor to take a leadership role in this planning process as they begin their work on next year’s budget. Parents and students expect action and not just rhetoric in 2008.

In anticipation of the 2008 “Year of Education” policy discussions, Parents and Students for Great Schools released a survey earlier this year of 5,600 California community members in 25 counties throughout the state. Ninety percent of respondents indicated that they expect their elected officials to act now to ensure a more efficient and equitable education funding system. Survey respondents expressed deep concerns about the state’s dropout crisis, the low college-going rates among Latinos and African American students, and the inequitable distribution of teachers across the state.

What’s at risk if we fail to improve California’s schools is the very future of California’s children, its workforce, and its long-term economic prospects. The future success of our children and our state requires an on-going, long-term commitment that cannot turn on the fluctuations of the budget from one year to the next.