Posted on 12/20/2007 9:28:31 PM PST by NormsRevenge
SACRAMENTO -- California schools could face painful mid-year spending cuts of a $1 billion or more as a weakening economy lowers tax revenue forecasts, reducing the Proposition 98 school-funding guarantee.
Non-partisan Legislative Analyst Liz Hill said last month that school funding in the current year was about $400 million above the Proposition 98 guarantee.
She suggested that lawmakers look at cutting the "over-appropriation" as one way to begin closing a huge budget shortfall now reportedly estimated by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to be about $14 billion over the next 18 months.
Hill's estimate was made when the shortfall was believed to be $10 billion. Although no details have been released, Schwarzenegger's $14 billion shortfall is presumed to be based in large part on lower revenue forecasts.
"I heard this morning that it could be $1.4 billion ... It's getting worse by the day," Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association, said of rumors of a ballooning Proposition 98 over-appropriation.
"I have been through two of these mid-year reductions, and it's a nightmare," he said.
Plotkin said there is a possibility that a prompt cut of $400 million might be possible before some school districts have received the funds or spent it on teachers and other ongoing expenses.
"The bigger this number gets the more we are talking about definitely having impact on schools, and we are halfway through the school year," he said.
In the state budget for the fiscal year that began in July, a $102 billion general fund allocates $42 billion for kindergarten through high school. Proposition 98, approved by voters in 1988, guarantees schools roughly 40 percent of the general fund.
Through a complicated formula, Proposition 98 is intended to make sure that school funding keeps pace with enrollment growth and inflation. A suspension of Proposition 98 requires a two-thirds vote of the Legislature.
School groups led by the powerful California Teachers Association have formed a coalition that has zealously protected Proposition 98. The Education Coalition also contends that per-pupil funding in California is below the national average.
"I can tell you that until everybody puts all of their cards on the table, we are not agreeing to anything," Plotkin said of the current budget situation.
CA: School nightmare looms
Some might say we have been watching a nightmare for quite a few years in many California schools, no matter how much money we pump into them.
I wonder where they would be, fiscally, without the children of illegals.
“Weakening economy” my Aunt Fanny! It’s the millions upon millions of illegal alien children that they’re forced to educate with no tax base to support it!
Zimbabwefornia BUMP!
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Best guess: From 1885 to 1950 Hispanic surnames were a relatively stable 15% of California's population. Today, over 50% of the births and almost 40% of California's K-12 school population have Hispanic surnames. An educated guess would be that about 1/3 of school age children in California can trace their heritage to illegal immigration. Based on today's education budget, that equates to a savings of about $20B (that's Billion with a B) annually.
In light of these numbers, the $1B reduction proposed hardly seems fair.
Oh the humanity. They might even run out of condoms to put on cucumbers. What then?
California’s Legislative Analyst’s Office
http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/
—
California’s Fiscal Outlook: Proposition 98 Briefing
November 15, 2007
PDF Summary
http://www.lao.ca.gov/laoapp/PubDetails.aspx?id=1683
let California be the first to cut out band, sports, arts, music, since that is what will have to happen to pay all the govt workers with their hands out...
thanks to the NEA..
let California be the first to cut out band, sports, arts, music, since that is what will have to happen to pay all the govt workers with their hands out...
thanks to the NEA..
“School Nightmare Looms in CA”
The real school nigthmare out there is the pro-homosexual push that is going to start in earnest thanks to the Homonator signing that stupid bill.
I think the libs are going to see their nightmare realized when a significant percentage of Christians finally say enough to the gubmint indoctrination centers and their federal funds start drying up.
Best thing that could help now is one initiative, or numerous initiatives, to roll back the spending initiatives passed by the voters the past couple decades. Start with Schwarzenegger’s After-school Program passed by voters in 2002.
Worst thing that could happen is the state declaring bankruptcy. At that point either a precedent would be established with the federal government bailing out the state with borrowed money from China, or bankruptcy proceeding would take place with one judge deciding the fate of the state.
We need to repeal all the previously approved spending initiatives, get back on sound financial ground, put guns to the heads of the legislators with firm instructions to not mess with the renewed financial soundness, and let real prosperity return to the state.
If they didn’t push through multi-billion dollar spending hikes every single year, there wouldn’t be a budget crisis to begin with.
Just 9 years ago, California was spending $5,750 per K-12 student. This year, they’re spending $8600.
California is, in many ways, an example of “how not to do it”.
I love how they talk about school monies instead of the tax money spent on sex changes for the mentally ill and prisoners and also the tax dollars paying for the costly hormones that keep them in the right hormone category for their new gender.
All they have to do is end the cross town busing and they would be fine..or expell all the illegals and they would have the best financed school system in the world.
California certainly has done well with the Compassionate Arnold...IMO, this is what the reat of the country will look like with a D-rat or a Guili/McCain/Hucka-R in the WH.
How about the payouts to teacher-molested kindergarteners—among other school children—I've been reading about at FR. Some settlements have been described as "hefty".
Those are becoming the equivalent of payouts by the RC church, but are paid for by even deeper pockets—from taxpayers. Monies intended "for education".
BTW, RobinOfKingston: Clinton is presently touring Wolfeboro, NH, summer home of Mitt Romney.
He will be passing the real estate signs of an agent named "Robin Kingston"!
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