Strengthening California’s public education system is one of the
primary reasons I ran for office, and I have taken a public stance
against budget cuts to education.
Strengthening California’s public education system is one of the primary reasons I ran for office, and I have taken a public stance against budget cuts to education. Furthermore, I have already refused to support several cuts to education that have come before the State Senate.
California’s budget woes should not be balanced on the backs of our children. Full funding, however, is not enough. We need to reform the way that the state doles out money.
Education funding must come in the form of block grants, which gives flexibility to school districts. Funding cannot continue to arrive in categorical programs, which attach strings to funding.
There are currently more than 100 categorical programs for K-12 education alone. This ties up nearly one third (about $12 billion) of the total amount of money spent on K-12 Education.
Gov. Gray Davis, in his January budget proposal, suggests consolidating 64 K-12 categorical programs into block grants. Also, I have introduced Senate Bill 76, which would consolidate 11 Community College categorical programs into two block grants.
Categorical programs are created regularly by legislators who want to make sure that schools have a specific program. Local schools are then left with little control over how this money is spent. Moreover, these programs often have very little accountability.
Categoricals are rarely reviewed or audited, and even less frequently repealed. Categorical programs also create staggering amounts of paperwork that must be completed by districts and then reported to the state controller’s office.
Revenue flows annually to these programs without regard to changes or improvements that occur. For instance, in 1965, the “Miller-Unruh Reading Program” was created. This program pays specialists to help students who struggle with reading.
Under this categorical program, once a school receives funding, it will for years on end. The Rescue Union School District in El Dorado County has some of the highest reading scores in that area, but receives roughly $50,000 in Miller-Unruh funding. The North Sacramento School District on the other hand, with below-average reading scores, receives no funding from Miller-Unruh.
There are also categoricals such as the “Dropout Prevention Program,” which may be a good program, but is still called a pilot program, even though it has existed for 18 years. How can you have a program still labeled temporary, when it was signed into law by former Gov. George Deukmejian?
If the Legislature shifts funding to block grants, real local control and accountability would be restored to education. Block grants allow locally elected school board members to make the tough decisions that will effect their schools.
This new system would allow those with the closest connection to schools to make critical funding decisions. If students and parents do not agree with funding appropriations made by local boards, then they can vote those board members out of office.
With categorical programs, that is not possible. We citizens vote for our own Assembly member and senator, but not for the other 118 legislators.
Our votes help elect or defeat the governor, but we are just a small fraction of the statewide electorate.
Block grants empower local communities, allowing them to spend money in a way that best suits their needs.
The schools in our 12th Senate District do not have identical needs. If Roosevelt Junior High School in Modesto and Washington Middle School in Salinas do not have the same needs for funding, why should we assume that all schools do statewide?
School districts should be given the flexibility to use money on their highest priorities. School board members are elected as local trustees for education. They are accountable to local voters, and are much better suited to spending your education dollars than a bunch of bureaucrats in Sacramento.
