Published: Thursday, Jul. 09, 2009
State Budget Crisis: Schools foresee freeze on funds
Governor proposes suspension of Prop. 98 money, which means local districts may lose $27 million
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
closeThe governor wants to suspend some guaranteed funding for schools in order to help balance the state budget just as some of the county’s 10 school districts face severe cash flow problems of their own.
One of the biggest budgetary fights looming in Sacramento involves the governor’s proposal to suspend Proposition 98, which guarantees schools get about 45 percent of the state’s general fund. Schools statewide could lose up to $8 billion more, according to county schools Superintendent Julian Crocker.
It’s expected that such a suspension will happen, because the Legislature and the governor failed to reach a budget solution by July 1, Crocker said.
Crocker said he expects local schools to lose a total of $27 million over the previous and current fiscal years, or $25,000 annually per classroom. That means funding is already down about 5 percent annually.
Crocker said he does not anticipate more layoffs by school districts, but many will not be able to rehire the temporary staff who had received layoff notices. Class sizes in most local school districts will increase from about 20 students to about 30 students, he predicted.
Crocker said he expects schools will face cuts even as powerful statewide interest groups like teachers’ unions are opposing suspending Proposition 98. He said the state does not have a lot of places to make up the shortfall in its current cash crisis.
“If you suspend Proposition 98, you essentially have to give schools an IOU,” Crocker said. “In the long term, the state has an obligation to repay us, but it could be four or five years.”
But news of possible cuts in San Luis Obispo County is hitting as some districts are already facing immediate shortfalls because the state has suspended its cash payments to districts.
“We usually get a June cash apportionment,” Crocker said. “Since they didn’t pass a budget, we didn’t get anything in June. This is a cash flow issue. Schools are literally making payroll by borrowing from other internal funds.”
Five districts — Lucia Mar serving the South County, Paso Robles, Atascadero, San Miguel and Shandon — have all notified Crocker’s office that they will not be able to maintain their emergency reserves through 2011. But that was before the latest news, Crocker said.
The Legislature did present the governor with a budget package before July 1, which would have allowed the normal Proposition 98 formula to kick in. Ironically, that formula would have had schools receive considerably less money because of the drop in state tax revenue.
But the legislators and the governor could not agree on extraneous issues, and that package did not pass in time to be effective.
“If they had let it operate by law, the schools’ portions of the new taxes would have been low because taxes are low,” Crocker said.
Proposition 98 guarantees a minimum funding for 34,800 local students in kindergarten through 12th grades, and for more than 11,000 students at Cuesta College.
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.