Ed groups still want Brown funding formula debated outside budget
By Kimberly Beltran
Friday, March 01, 2013
While broad consensus from the K-12 community for Gov. Jerry Brown’s new school financing proposal emerged Thursday during a Senate panel hearing, district administrators and lawmakers said they still want to see it developed through legislative education policy debate – not carried as part of the governor’s budget bill.
Brown’s refusal to budge on that point last year led to the plan going nowhere but, as promised then, the governor reintroduced his Local Control Funding Formula as part of his 2013-14 budget proposal, unveiled in January.
“I agree with you, this bill doesn’t belong in a trailer bill,” said Sen. Roderick Wright, D-Los Angeles, echoing the concerns of several district superintendents asked to address the panel. “This has to be something that’s much more greatly expanded so that all of the issues come into account.”
Thursday’s review of the plan by the Senate’s budget committee – the first public vetting of Brown’s latest attempt to simplify and balance the state’s antiquated school funding system – revealed widespread support among education leaders and advocates for the basic tenet of the plan: to create equity across schools by providing a per-pupil base grant to be used at local administrators’ discretion, and supplementing that general allocation with extra money for