Governor Jerry Brown released his May Revise budget proposal outlining over $4 billion in additional cuts to close what's now deemed a $15.7 billion deficit (up from $9 billion in January).  The cuts will largely be realized through reductions in state employee compensation, welfare, health care, higher education, courts, and other critical government programs.  The budget proposal also continues to rely on the passage of the Governor's tax increase proposal in November.  Failure to pass the initiative that would generate over $6-9 billion in additional revenue will result in over $6 billion in additional cuts that would go into effect on January 1st.

 

Despite intense opposition by categorical stakeholders, the Weighted Student Formula (WSF) remains a key component of the Governor's education budget proposal.  However, the Administration has undertaken a few changes as follows:

 

-       Base funding increase to $5,421 per student (formerly $4,920)

-       Adjustment of grade spans to account for cost differences: K-3, 4-6, 7-8 and 9-12

-       Reduction in weighting for ELL and low-income students to 20% (from 37%) and requirement to use the funds on those populations

-       Retains school transportation and Targeted Instructional Improvement Grant funds as separate add-ons, but funding remains flexible

-       Phase-in would be over seven years (previously five)

-       Contingency for continued phase-in in FY 13-14 based on the creation of an accountability system through legislation to address school success indicators, professional development opportunities for teachers, college enrollment, employment rates, and more

 

While the Governor is continuing to push his WSF approach, the Legislature seems far less inclined to move such significant reforms at a time when schools are already struggling to make ends meet and are shutting down programs like adult education across the state.  While the education funding formulas and calculations are often challenging to decipher, it appears that the WSF is merely a policy/structure reform that doesn't have savings associated with it.  The savings in the K-12 budget comes from approaches like K-12 deferrals, elimination of transitional kindergarten, Prop 98 adjustments, Quality Education Investment Act (QEIA) savings, and etc.  The Administration doesn't appear to score significant savings (if any) with the WSF approach.  In that respect, it's possible that the Legislature could take the other components, toss the WSF and move forward without a big loss of budgetary ground. 

 

The ability to move adult education out of current flexibility (at any level), despite the Legislature's support for adult education and distaste for the proposed WSF, remains a significant challenge.  The battle ground to save adult education continues to reside within the Legislature.  Continue to make calls and send letters and emails to your legislators. Be sure to copy membership@ccaestate.org or fax 866-941-5129 so we may present hard copies when lobbying the issue. Please encourage others to join the Supporters of Adult Education campaign to keep the pressure on the Legislature to save adult education as they make tough choices in the coming weeks.

 

For more information please refer to the May Revise Summary.