Senators offer alternative to Brown's LCFF
By Tom Chorneau
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
Senate Democrats have offered an alternative restructuring of state funding for public schools that would kick in a year later than Gov. Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula.
In an announcement made late Tuesday, Senate leader Darrell Steinberg noted the funding bill reflects much of what Brown has already proposed in terms of creating a more streamlined and equitable system. But based on public hearings and a number of closed door study sessions, Senate Democrats are suggesting some significant changes too.
For one, SB 69 – the new proposal’s legislative vehicle – would eliminate the governor’s plan to provide “concentration grants” to districts in which more than half of the students are low-income. Instead, senators would roll that additional money into the “base grant” that all districts will receive as well as into the “supplement grants,” which are additional resources for educationally disadvantage students.
Like the governor’s plan, senators would provide a base grant differentiated by grade span – but they will wait to assign a specific dollar value to the base funding until after the revised May budget is released and revenue numbers
