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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
More amendments coming to AB 5, including sunset clause
With the list of opponents mounting, the author of a bill to rewrite the state’s 40-year-old teacher evaluation law rushed Wednesday to amend the bill for the third time to try to get it through Senate committees and on to the floor of the Legislature by the end of the session tomorrow. Meeting hastily Wednesday evening, ambivalent members of the Senate Education Committee approved AB 5 on the condition that Democratic Assemblymember Felipe Fuentes commit to … Read entire article »
Filed under: Evaluations, Featured, Reporting & Analysis, Teacher Unions
What next for Brown’s school finance reform?
A termed-out state senator who’s been a leader on education issues offered advice Wednesday to Gov. Jerry Brown on how to get the Legislature to pass significant school finance reform: Don’t try to jam lawmakers; ally yourself with a respected legislator who’s got more than a couple years left to serve; and implement the reforms gradually, for more buy-in from 1,000 districts that will be asking, “What’s in it for me?” “Come back through policy process … Read entire article »
Filed under: Featured, Finance, Reporting & Analysis, Weighted Student Funding (Local Control Funding Formula)
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