The potential curse of money deferred | Thoughts on Public Education

The potential curse of money deferred | Thoughts on Public Education

The potential curse of money deferred

Districts will feel pressure to spend what may soon vanish

Posted on 10/08/10 • Categorized as State Budget

By John Fensterwald - Educated Guess

Even in suspending Proposition 98, after hemming and hawing all night long, for only the second time, the Legislature approved Prop 98 spending of $1.2 billion more than Gov. Schwarzenegger proposed in May. And then lawmakers tacked on $3 billion on top of that.

That’s the good news. The bad news is how they did it, with $1.9 billion of the $3 billion ($1.7 billion for K-12, $200 million for community colleges) deferred until the next fiscal year. In the end, that may leave school districts worse off than before.

Here’s why: There’s a good chance that for many reasons the deferred money will be like vaporware – an undelivered promise. The state budget is built on optimistic assumptions of $5 billion extra funding from the federal government and higher state revenue than the

49.02: just shy of a majority, percentage of Hispanic students in K-12 schools. Rest of breakdown: 27.86% white not Hispanic; 8.42% Asian; 7.27% African-American; 2.69% Filipino; 0.74% Native American; 0.63% Pacific Islander; 3.37% multiple or no response