Assembly adds its version of school finance reform to the mix - by John Fensterwald
by John Fensterwald
Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla
The Assembly has produced its own version of Gov. Jerry Brown’s Local Control Funding Formula, further complicating the governor’s goal of passing school finance reform as part of the new state budget by July 1.
Taking the form of a one-page set of principlesthat the Assembly Budget Committee’s subcommittee on education finance approved on Thursday, with one Republican not voting (Brian Nestande, R-Palm Desert), it endorses the basics of Brown’s LCFF while suggesting complex variations to key aspects of it. The full Budget Committee is expected to adopt it Tuesday, sending it to conference committee where it must be melded with the Senate’s alternative to LCFF and negotiated with Brown.
Brown’s aim is to create a more equitable and uniform school funding system by directing more money to high-needs students. The Assembly’s version agrees, but it also responds to complaints by suburban districts they they’ve been treated unfairly and by some districts with pockets of poverty that argue their high-needs students are being shortchanged.
“We’re taking the pragmatic view, with limited dollars, of wanting to meet needs of all students but
