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By Tom Chorneau
Monday, October 28, 2013
In settling a simmering dispute between schools and civil rights groups over the use of new state funding targeting disadvantaged students, the Brown administration appears to have decided to give local officials authority to define the mission.
Civil rights and community groups had been lobbying the governor’s office, state schools chief Tom Torlakson and members of the California State Board of Education most of the summer to impose greater restrictions on the funds provided under the new Local Control Funding Formula – directives that would better ensure the money is being used to help English learners, low income students and foster youth.
But a staff report set for consideration by the state board next week on how the state board might craft LCFF spending regulations suggests the governor has sided with schools.
“It is as the governor said early on in committing to the principle of subsidiarity,” said one local school official who took part in the negotiations and asked not be identified. “You define it. You measure it. You deliver it.”
The report follows a series of closed-door stakeholders meeting hosted by the administration and the California Department of Education to get input on the new spending regulations as well as requirements on districts to meet new accountability mandates.
One key issue was how the state board might decide between two conflicting goals within the enabling legislation
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