Assemblymembers Brian Nestande, R- Palm Desert,
and Kristin Olsen, R-Modesto, announced an Assembly Constitutional
Amendment (ACA) to prioritize education funding in the budget by
prohibiting the Legislature from deferring payments to California's
schools.
"We believe education funding should be a top priority,
and this ACA will end the use of budgetary gimmicks that result in our
schools being short-changed," said Olsen. "It is an outrage that schools
are only receiving $1 out of every $5 dollars they are owed. We cannot
allow these delays and empty promises to continue."
"We need to be
straightforward with teachers, parents and students regarding the level
of funding they will be receiving, instead of misleading them with
smoke and mirrors," said Nestande. "Eliminating the practice of
deferrals will improve the financial health of school districts and
avoid the disruptions that result from emergency budget cuts to school
programs."
This measure will force the Legislature and Governor to
account for state funding shortfalls in an open and transparent way so
that school officials, parents and students have a clear picture of the
level of funding their schools will be receiving. Nestande and Olsen
argue that education should be the top priority in the state budget. If
cuts are made to education, they should be made openly and not masked by
accounting mechanisms.
"The public has remained in the dark for
too long on the real world effect of deferrals, an accounting gimmick
used in Sacramento over the last decade to hide red ink in non-school
accounts now totaling over $10 billion annually," said Bill Lucia,
President and CEO, EdVoice. "Using bogus accounting tables with
footnotes and a lot of fine print, politicians continue to hide
government's insatiable appetite by making it look like schools are
getting the money, but in reality it's being siphoned off to other
non-school accounts. In the meantime, the rest of government grows and
schools continue to be short-changed year after year regardless of
whether or not the economy is improving."
Beginning in the
2001-02 school year as a small and temporary budget solution, and
increasing significantly in 2008-09, California has excessively relied
on budgetary and cash deferrals to K-12 school districts and community
colleges to balance the state budget. Over $10 billion is currently owed
to our schools.
"The state's decision to delay payments to
schools, on top of reducing our funding, has been devastating," said
Superintendent Joe Silva, Tuolumne County. "To make ends meet we have
suffered increased borrowing costs, and additional layoffs and cutbacks
to programs. This practice has jeopardized the overall financial health
of many districts and should be stopped."
"Given the current
budget crisis, the timing of this measure could not me more crucial,"
said Dave Long, former California Secretary of Education. "For far too
long school districts have been forced to make critical financial
decisions based on nothing more than conjecture. This measure will
allow them to look at real numbers so they can properly allocate funding
that they are owed. The future of our students' education should not
be based on financial guesstimates or gimmicks."
