Source: California Channel webcast

Gov. Jerry Brown

Source: California Channel webcast

Gov. Jerry Brownish

Spending for K-12 schools in the coming twelvemonth will be $6 billion more than Gov. Jerry Brownish proposed simply v months agone, raising per-student spending $3,000 – 45 percentage – from what information technology was four years ago, according to the revised state budget that the governor released on Thursday.

State revenues have surged this year, and Grand-12 schools and customs colleges will booty in nearly every penny because of Proposition 98, the constitutional amendment that puts schools showtime in line for restoring funding when the economy rebounds after a recession.

The new level of Prop. 98 spending for K-12 schools and community colleges will be $68.4 billion in 2015-16. That is $7.5 billion more than the Legislature appropriated last June for the current year. Surging revenues, which are projected to keep into adjacent yr, will bring the total increment for schools next year to about $fourteen billion in Prop. 98 spending (see pages thirteen-22 of state upkeep summary).

Simply alert that "the reality is another recession is coming," Dark-brown is splitting the increase between ongoing spending, one-time expenditures and paying off debts.

Local Control Funding: The Local Control Funding Formula, which provides general spending to schools, will remain his top priority. It volition get $six.1 billion more next year, or nigh $1,000 more per educatee on average, with districts with higher proportions of English language language learners and low-income children receiving more than.

Paying off mandates: About $three.five billion ($2.4 billion more than in the January budget) will pay for unreimbursed mandated expenses. Districts and county offices of education can use this money however they want, although the governor is encouraging them to spend it on implementing the new Common Core and science standards.

"I call up there'south an expectation and promise that it will be put into Mutual Core implementation," said David Plank, executive director of Policy Analysis for California Didactics, or Stride, a inquiry center based at Stanford University, "Common Core is difficult work and the money, I think, will be profoundly received and put to good utilise."

Just Education Trust-West, an advocacy grouping for depression-income and minority students, criticized Brownish for not requiring districts to use the money for Common Core. "Districts will be pressured to use these funds for many other competing priorities," it said in a argument. "We missed an opportunity to ensure our state standards volition truly make a difference for all of our students."

Special education: The Statewide Special Instruction Task Force, a grouping convened in 2022 to propose improvements to special education in California, received recognition in the revised budget – and $threescore million for some of the actions it recommended. This includes  $50 meg in ongoing funding and $10 million in one-fourth dimension funding to expand interventions for special-needs children nether two years old, add together ii,500 additional preschool slots prioritized for special-needs children and aggrandize data-driven schoolwide behavioral supports.

Terminate of deferrals: About $1 billion will pay off the final late payments to districts, known as deferrals, which forced districts to borrow coin, sometimes at high interest rates, while waiting for state funding.

Advocates for young children and the Legislative Women's Caucus had called on Brown to provide $600 one thousand thousand more for kid care for low-income families by shifting that expense into Prop. 98. The Legislative Analyst's Office had suggested freeing upward coin for not-Prop. 98 spending by adjusting property taxes that become toward teaching funding.

Merely Michael Cohen, manager of the Section of Finance, said he was "not interested in manipulating the Prop. 98 guarantee" and "plopping things into 98" to spend additional coin. The department, he said, distinguished programs that qualify for education funding.

Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, who chairs the Assembly Upkeep Committee'southward didactics subcommittee, said that she shares the "strong sentiment" to include more than coin for kid care in Prop. 98, where that funding was included until it was shifted in 2010-11. The issue will be negotiated with the administration, she said.

Praise from education groups

Education groups more often than not had high praise for the revised budget. Plank called it a "spectacularly good budget for K-12." Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors, a lobbying firm representing school districts and county offices of education, said it was "one of the all-time budgets for K-12 I have ever seen. Information technology has fully discretionary money with no strings attached. That normally doesn't happen."

The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that extra revenue in the May budget revision will raise K-12 Proposition 98 funding to $9,978 per student –$656 per student higher than the inflation-adjusted, pre-recession spending level in 2007-08. The LAO's estimate for 2014-15 includes one-time spending of $700 per student more than districts anticipated when they built their 2014-15 budgets; that money, totaling $4.3 billion, will be spent in 2015-16 and subsequent years. (click to enlarge.)

Source: Legislative Analyst's Office

The Legislative Analyst's Office estimates that extra acquirement in the May budget revision will raise M-12 Suggestion 98 funding to $9,978 per student –$656 per pupil college than the inflation-adapted, pre-recession spending level in 2007-08. The LAO's estimate for 2014-15 includes i-fourth dimension spending of $700 per student more than districts anticipated when they built their 2014-fifteen budgets; that money, totaling $four.3 billion, volition be spent in 2015-xvi and subsequent years. (click to enlarge.)

Adonai Mack, legislative advocate for the Clan of California School Administrators, said his organization agrees with Brown's priorities and appreciates that the governor didn't permit other programs to encroach on Prop. 98 spending. "It's a very good budget for public education," he said.

Joshua Pechthalt, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said the budget reflected the right priorities in funding education and creating a new tax credit for depression-income workers. But he added, "we have a long manner to go before we restore the programs in education and social services we lost to a decade of budget cuts," and called for making temporary taxes nether Suggestion 30 permanent.

Double-digit spending increases for schools is not expected to continue past side by side yr. Country revenues are expected to flatten with the expiration of temporary increases in the state sales tax and the income tax on the wealthiest 1 percent. And the portion of the acquirement going to K-12 schools and customs colleges will decline after next year to about the standard 40 percent of the general upkeep afterward past obligations to Prop. 98 are fully paid off. Called the maintenance factor, it was equally loftier as $11 billion as a effect of cuts made during the recession, just will be under $800 one thousand thousand after next twelvemonth.

The new Prop. 98 numbers will ease anxiety in Los Angeles Unified, whose lath approved a 10 pct pay increase for teachers without knowing how the district would encompass the expense. Commune officials said Thursday that the $300 million to $400 million in additional country money next year – half for ongoing costs and one-half in 1-time funds – would encompass the costs of teacher raises. Simply they said they were unsure if they tin avoid teacher layoffs next school year or how they will pay for promised future raises.

The Legislative Analyst's Role estimates that extra revenue in the May upkeep revision will raise 1000-12 Prop. 98 funding to $nine,978 per pupil –$656 per educatee college than the aggrandizement-adapted, pre-recession spending level in 2007-08. However, nether the new funding formula, some districts with fewer English language learners and low-income students are nevertheless well below that figure. And all districts will face up substantial increases in pension costs for teachers, which will rise an additional $3.vii billion collectively over the adjacent four years.

Reporters Jane Meredith Adams, Susan Frey, Michelle Maitre and Sarah Tully contributed to the coverage of the country budget.

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