Latest News and Comment from Education

Thursday, January 3, 2013

California School Funding: Jerry Brown To Pursue Sweeping Overhaul | toteachornototeach

California School Funding: Jerry Brown To Pursue Sweeping Overhaul | toteachornototeach:


California School Funding: Jerry Brown To Pursue Sweeping Overhaul

California School Funding: Jerry Brown To Pursue Sweeping Overhaul
jerry-brown-california
By Theresa Harrington and Steve Harmon
SACRAMENTO — In what promises to be one of his most significant policy moves this year, Gov. Jerry Brown will pursue a sweeping overhaul of the way California schools are funded, changing the way money has been allocated for four decades.
Although the administration hasn’t released specifics, Brown wants to simplify funding streams, giving more local control to school boards and more money to districts with low-income students and those who don’t speak English fluently.
He also wants to wipe out dozens of rules that districts must now follow to receive billions of state dollars annually. Some of those mandates, such as a requirement to limit class size in exchange for additional money, were suspended because of Sacramento’s persistent budget problems but are set to resume by 2015.
Brown and his advisers met with a large committee of educators to discuss the funding proposal three times in