• Athletics
  • Big Ed
  • Ed Tech
  • Educators
  • Elections
  • Federal Policy
  • Parents
  • Students
  • The Testing Industry

K-12 News Network's The Wire

K-12 News Network: People-Powered Public Education News

  • Budgets
  • Charter Schools
  • Federal Policy
  • School Districts
  • State Education Law
  • School Boards
You are here: Home / Budgets / Updates to the CA School Funding Map Tool, May 15-June 15, 2011

Updates to the CA School Funding Map Tool, May 15-June 15, 2011

June 12, 2011 by K12NN Site Admin

Facebooktwitterredditlinkedinmail

UPDATE as of June 12, 2011: Governor Brown says there’ll be a vote on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 in the legislature on tax extension and the budget come hell or high water.

Governor Jerry Brown: June 15 Deadline for CA Budget Vote

Go to the California School Funding Map Tool here.

If you haven’t called any of the people who live in areas represented by Republican holdouts, here’s why Monday and Tuesday are do-or-die for calls: the first-draft maps for State Senate, Assembly, and Congressional seats have come out. Find out how redistricting will impact you here. Hard-core conservatives will not fare well. The LA Times, in analyzing the impact of redistricting on the state’s GOP, has this to say (quoting GOP advisers themselves):

Between now and next year’s elections, Republicans must scramble to reinvent themselves, recruit more moderate candidates and find common ground with more Californians if they are to be at all relevant in Golden State politics, according to independent experts and partisan analysts alike. Then voters in the considerable number of new swing districts that the maps show could opt to elect moderate Republicans just as easily as centrist Democrats.

…

But the new maps, which will be further refined before they are ratified in August, seem to have changed the calculus, especially for Republicans such as state Sen. Tom Berryhill of Modesto. The district he now represents was drawn into a majority Democratic area.

Berryhill is one of five senators who have bucked party leadership — and the majority of his GOP colleagues — this year to negotiate with Gov. Jerry Brown on a proposal to renew billions of dollars in expiring tax hikes. The new districts’ potential makeup could provide a final push for Republicans and Democrats alike to agree on the taxes and pass a budget as they face the deadline for doing so Wednesday.

The GOP would like Californians to think that an unexpected state income tax surplus or a bridge tax that puts off a public vote to September, 2011, or even November 2012, would solve the problem for schools. But it’s this kind of kicking the can down the road that will leave schools in a lurch. Thoughts on Public Education‘s John Fensterwald explains how a delayed tax extension vote is of no help to schools:

If temporary taxes aren’t extended, districts will face a dilemma. Brown’s May revise implies that K-12 schools would have to take their lumps, along with other programs. Since schools consume 40 percent of the general fund, a proportional hit would cut schools about $3.6 billion, or about $600 per student, resulting in a shortened school year and theoretically more layoffs [instead of $349 cut per student as originally forecast in February, 2011 by the Legislative Analyst’s Office].

What Fensterwald doesn’t mention is the continuing problem of the funding cliff. Revenue extensions good for 4-5 years are the most workable solution to keeping schools from tumbling off the cliff’s edge.

CALL NOW! Urge constituents living in the 11 targeted GOP districts to vote what’s right and extend the taxes schools need. People across the state are asking their representatives to save schools and important public services with a yes vote for tax extensions. The message is: GOP state representatives should vote for taxes for vital public services and they might see re-election. Don’t extend them, and surely they won’t.

You can make calls now, toll free (1-866-864-8567) or attend an event (schedule here).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

UPDATE: What’s different for the grassroots movement to fund schools with a 2/3 legislative vote extending revenue, now that the May revise has been released? In short, nothing. Keep calling State Senators and Assembly members, and visiting your legislators in their district offices! Parents for Great Education has some great action tips. School funding is still at risk, because while the unanticipated tax windfall helps in school year ’11-’12, it doesn’t address the long-term funding cliff schools still face after June 30, 2011, under an all-cuts budget if no extensions are passed.

If you want to get into the gruesome details, they can be found here.

Facebooktwitterlinkedinrssyoutube

Filed Under: Budgets, Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, School Districts

About K12NN Site Admin

I'm Cynthia Liu, Owner/Founder of K12 News Network. I'm the proud product of public schools through post-grad, the mom of a child in public schools, and the daughter of two teachers. Connect with me professionally on LinkedIn.

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required
Email Format

Buy a hybrid Facebook+ website today!

Federal Policy

Quick Education Voter’s Guide to the California CD34 Race, April 4, 2017

There are twenty-three candidates running to fill former Congressman Xavier Bacerra’s seat in Congressional District 34 in Southern California. (Bacerra is currently the state’s Attorney General, replacing Kamala Harris, who, after November 8, 2016, became our US Senator.) Election Day is Tuesday, April 4, 2017, 7:00 am to 8:00 pm. You can find your polling […]

Betsy DeVos, #NOTMYSDOE

Take the pledge to #resist and fight for public schools as a public good TODAY. DeVos had to have the assistance of Vice President Mike Pence’s unprecedented tie-breaking vote in order to win her confirmation. Two GOP Senators voted against, all Democratic Senators voted against. Yet all the other GOP Senators who received campaign donations […]

Next #DemDebate MUST Include K-12 Education Policy

The next #DemDebate is scheduled for the important primary state of Iowa on November 14, 2015. It’ll be broadcast by CBS in partnership with the Des Moines Register. Professor Julian Vasquez Heilig is leading the call for the families of 50 million students K-12 across the nation and the communities they live in to have […]

More Posts from this Category

K12NN on Blog Talk Radio

Online Politics Progressive Radio at Blog Talk Radio with MOMocrats on BlogTalkRadio

Categories

June 2011
S M T W T F S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« May   Jul »

Copyright © 2022 · The Wire Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in