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Poll showing strong voter support for revised budget
Voter support is giving Gov. Jerry Brown a tailwind as he heads into negotiations over the state budget and school finance reform with the Legislature. A new poll by the Public Policy Institute of California found that Californians continue to overwhelmingly back Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula, even though superintendents of suburban districts are very unhappy with the share they’d get, and Democrats in the Senate and Assembly want to change parts of it. The poll … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Parcel Tax, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, State Budget, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Fewer school districts in financial trouble
The number of California school districts facing financial distress has fallen by more than 50 percent, down to 92 from 188 a year ago, according to figures released Tuesday by the State Department of Education. The Department releases two interim status reports a year identifying which of the 1,037 school districts, county offices of education and joint powers agencies are in financial jeopardy. In this year’s Second Interim Status Report, eight districts received negative certifications, meaning they don’t have enough money to pay their bills and may need intervention by their county office of education. While that’s down by four from a year ago, it’s a slight increase from the First Interim Status Report for 2012-13, when seven districts were on the negative list. Another 84 districts received qualified certifications, indicating that … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Funding and Taxation, Quick Hits, Revenue and taxes, State Budget, Taxes
Brown’s former adviser: Aim for balance behind shift to local control
Sue Burr has seen and done a lot in 40-plus years of playing key roles in California education – advising legislators and governors, administering the finances of a large school district, running the state county superintendents’ organization and, for the past two years, serving as executive director of the State Board of Education. Burr retired at the end of last year, only to be nominated two weeks later by Gov. Jerry Brown to return to the … Read entire article »
Filed under: Achievement Gap, Categorical Funding, Charter Schools, College Remediation, Featured, Jerry Brown, Q&A, Reporting & Analysis, State Board of Education, State Budget, Student spending, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
LAO has ‘serious concerns’ with governor’s Prop. 98 calculation
The State Legislative Analyst’s Office is calling into question the legality of Gov. Brown’s proposal to count new revenue from Proposition 39 toward funding for education. In a report released Thursday, the LAO warns that the governor’s plan for the initiative, the California Clean Energy Jobs Act, violates the intent of the law. Proposition 39, which won with 61 percent vote last November, is projected to raise up to half a billion dollars in revenue this fiscal … Read entire article »
Filed under: Adult education, Categorical Funding, Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, State Budget, Taxes
Californians upbeat on education budget, poll finds
Californians are expressing a long-lost sentiment: optimism. A new survey by the Public Policy Institute of California found growing support for Gov. Brown, for his education finance proposal and for making it easier for local communities to pass parcel taxes to help fund their schools. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Finance, Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis, Research, State Budget, Taxes, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
Renewed push for a 55 percent threshold to pass parcel tax
It didn’t take long for a Democratic senator among the newly empowered supermajority in the Legislature to go after a low-hanging fruit: lowering the threshold for passage of a local parcel tax for education. On Thursday, Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco announced he would introduce a constitutional amendment that would allow voters to pass parcel taxes for school districts and community colleges by 55 percent instead of the current two-thirds majority. “This change in law would give voters the power to make decisions about public education at the local level, allowing schools much-needed flexibility to improve instruction, fund libraries, music, the arts or other programs, or hire more teachers to reduce student-to-teacher ratios,” Leno said in a statement. Requiring a two-thirds majority to raise taxes was part of Proposition 13, passed in 1978. … Read entire article »
Filed under: Parcel Tax, Quick Hits, Taxes
Soon no more seeing red in state education funding, says LAO
Funding for California schools through Proposition 98 is heading up, even though the state’s general fund will still be facing a small deficit over the next couple of years. That’s according to the latest budget forecast released yesterday by the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO). “Our numbers reflect growth in Proposition 98 of a couple of billion each year, even more in the out years,” said Legislative Analyst Mac Taylor during a press conference in Sacramento. Passage of … Read entire article »
Filed under: Funding and Taxation, Jerry Brown, Proposition 98, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, Taxes
The Prop 30 windfall – not yet
When Proposition 30 won on Tuesday, it led a sweep of nearly two dozen local school parcel taxes and close to a hundred local school bonds approved by Californians that together will bring in tens of billions in new revenue for education. And some of those voters are already asking when their local schools will be rehiring laid-off teachers, reopening school libraries, and installing new technology. It will not be easy to explain that, at … Read entire article »
Filed under: Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Parcel Tax, Reporting & Analysis, Revenue and taxes, School Boards, State Budget, Taxes
Rift widens between backers of ed initiatives 30 and 38
Update below: PTA issues a letter to California’s teachers explaining its support of Prop 38. All pretense of goodwill is gone between backers of the two competing education tax measures on November’s ballot. State Board of Education President Mike Kirst and Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg joined union leaders Monday in sending a strongly worded letter to Molly Munger, the primary backer of Proposition 38, asking her not to run TV ads criticizing Proposition 30, … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Featured, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Reporting & Analysis, State Budget, Taxes
New chancellor has strong support, tough job
The California Community Colleges Board of Governors unanimously named Dr. Brice Harris*, a longtime community college leader, as the 15th chancellor of the statewide higher education system. Just hours later he received an unexpected gift from Gov. Jerry Brown, who signed SB 1456, the Student Success Act of 2012, into law. The bill, by Senator Alan Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), seeks to improve graduation and transfer rates at community colleges through better academic counseling and support services, setting … Read entire article »
Filed under: 2012 election, Community Colleges, Featured, Funding and Taxation, Initiatives, Jerry Brown, Legislature, Bills, Reporting & Analysis, Taxes
Video Highlights from
2013 EdSource Symposium
Transforming Public Education: What's Next For
Students, Teachers and Schools
- In Partnership with the California State PTA -
May 4th symposium in San Jose featured a number of prominent speakers on key challenges in education today, including Linda Darling-Hammond, Martha Kanter, and Pedro Noguera.
You can find video of those speakers and more at our new YouTube channel by clicking below.
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