Margaret Brodkin
Californians who care about the future of our state have both a once-a-generation opportunity and an urgent challenge: to marshal the resources needed to ensure the well-being of our children.
California has more children living in poverty than any place in the country, and continues to have lower education funding than all but a handful of states – despite the passage of Proposition 30 and the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). And many children’s services, from childcare to mental health, have seen dramatic budget cuts for over a decade. At the same time, the California economy (the ninth largest in the world) is improving, property values are increasing and many groups are already positioning their causes for anticipated new revenues. For everyone’s benefit, our children must be first in line so that we can ensure that they are healthy, live in supportive families, are ready for school, have safe places to learn and grow, and are fully prepared to transition to college and careers.
There are many compelling reasons to look to the local level – to cities, counties, school districts – to raise resources for children. As the state’s new funding formula reflects, policymakers are pushing decisions and actions for change to local communities, while sadly, as Bruce Katz, author of “The Metropolitan Revolution,” puts it: “The feds have left the building.” But it’s not just that we have no choice about acting locally: More importantly, the public is much more likely to support local measures than state and federal ones – even new taxes and fee increases. When the