Brown’s budget provides $2.7B in Prop 98 money over this year
By Tom Chorneau
Thursday, January 10, 2013
Finding economic recovery coming sooner than most had expected, Gov. Jerry Brown proposed a good news budget for schools that will provide an additional $2.7 billion more in Proposition 98 money than the current year – which was also adjusted upwards.
The plan includes a $1.8 billion repayment for prior deferred appropriations.
Brown’s much-anticipated plan for restructuring school funding builds on his proposal from last year. The governor said his proposal is aimed at creating a more level playing field for all students.
“Our future depends on disproportionately funding those schools that have disproportional challenges,” he said at a news conference Thursday. “Growing up in Richmond or Compton is not the same as growing up in Piedmont or Palo Alto. It's fair it's right and it's just.”
The revised formula would provide a base grant to all districts tied to average daily attendance and adjusted for the differential expense between grades. The additional support for disadvantaged students and English learners is proposed to be equal to 35 percent of the base with an additional 35 percent of the base for districts higher concentrations of targeted pupils.
As with the plan from last year, virtually all the categorical programs would be folded into the new funding formula. Bu