Schools see good, bad in governor's budget Schools see good, bad in governor's budget (January 27, 2006)

By Molly Tanenbaum

Despite promises from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that his proposed 2006-07 budget will be good for schools, local education officials aren't so sure.

Last week, the Mountain View-Whisman school board heard an analysis by chief financial officer Rebecca Wright, who outlined how the governor's proposal would affect the elementary district, from physical education and music to special education.

"We're cautiously optimistic," Wright said. "This looks like a good budget. It doesn't catch us up but we don't fall any further behind."

The good news from the governor's proposal is a cost-of-living adjustment on state funding that is the highest in two decades, at 5.18 per cent, Wright said. Those funds, plus a reduced deficit factor, could provide about $300,000 more for the 2006-07 school year, which could mean more money per student and for restricted "categorical" programs like physical education, art, music and nutrition.

However, to put the $300,000 into perspective, a 1 percent salary increase for all employees would cost the district $200,000; and a 1 percent increase in special education expenditures would amount to $210,000, according to Wright.

The bad news from the governor's budget is that the proposal does not provide sufficient funding for special education, despite the growing population of students with special needs. During this past school year, Mountain View-Whisman had a deficit of $2 million for special education funding, and it doesn't look like this year's budget is going to provide sufficient funds either -- especially when the cost of funding special education is rising faster than the cost-of-living adjustment, Wright explained.

A major concern with the current state budget is its lack of a cushion. The governor's plan spends $7 billion in reserves upfront to avoid budget cuts or tax hikes, leaving only a .7 percent reserve as an ending balance. According to Wright, this is not a good long-term solution, because the state would need to have a revenue increase in future years to ensure there is $7 billion each year to maintain programs created with those funds -- such as grants for physical education, arts and music, professional development, and digital classrooms.

"If I brought a budget to you with a fund balance like this, you'd say, 'Rebecca, we need to do something. This is not sustainable,'" Wright told the board.

Wright assured the board that Schwarzenegger's budget is by no means final. Not a single legislator has voted on it yet, and the plan will likely go through major changes by May, when the state legislature begins to work in earnest on the new budget.

E-mail Molly Tanenbaum at mtanenbaum@mv-voice.com

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