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Brown fights back, responds to critics of his funding formula - by John Fensterwald
by John Fensterwald
Gov. Jerry Brown emphatically vowed Wednesday “to fight with everything I have and whatever we have to bring to bear” for passage this year of his school finance reform, as proposed.
Back from a trip to China and re-engaged on a priority issue, Brown spoke at a news conference a day after Senate Democrats announced they would propose a bill that would delay action on the governor’s Local Control Funding Formula(LCFF) for a year and would eliminate one of its chief features, providing a “concentration grant” for districts with high percentages English learners and low-income children.
“We will go for the full program and fight any effort to dilute” the proposal, Brown said. “Kids cannot wait; superintendents and thousands of people will work to see passage of our bill.”
Standing with Brown were 20 superintendents whom the governor had summoned to Sacramento to voice their support. Some then testified at a hearing on Brown’s proposal before the Assembly Education Committee.
Brown’s plan would invest an extra 35 percent in per student funding for every low-income student and English learner, with a concentration bonus in districts where high-needs students comprise a majority.
Brown said the concentration grant would put “a relatively small amount of money into high concentrations of poverty,” where it will have powerful effect.
Brown characterized LCFF as a civil rights issue that deals with “the fact of life that there are deep inequities from Oregon to the Mexican border.” In California, he said, 60 percent of children are poor and 23 percent speak a language other than English at home. “People who know best,” he
