Vernon Billy
The governor and Legislature are preparing to approve budget language that severely limits the amount of funding school districts can maintain in their local reserves for economic uncertainties.
Both the Association of California School Administrators and California School Boards Association, representing superintendents, school boards and county boards of education, vehemently oppose this fiscally irresponsible proposal, as it is inconsistent with the principle of subsidiarity – a key principle of the state’s new Local Control Funding Formula. It also discounts the critical role that prudent budget reserves play in the ability of local educational agencies to maintain education programs during economic downturns.
Education is not solely a “state” program. It is governed, administered and provided by local school districts with locally elected governing boards and community engagement.
Should voters approve the State Rainy Day Fund ballot measure (Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1 or ACA 1) in November, school districts would be forced to spend down excess reserves whenever the state deposits money into its own state-level school reserve. The intrusive requirement would effectively impose an absolute cap of twice the state minimum standard of 3 percent that nearly every school district would be allowed to maintain for economic uncertainties.
Wes SmithThe proposal is fiscally irresponsible.
To enact these provisions is fiscally irresponsible and in conflict with the principles articulated by the Legislature in placing ACA 1 on the ballot. For most of the last two decades, California worked to prevent school district bankruptcies by enacting laws requiring multiyear projections, enforcement of strict fiscal standards by county offices of education, early intervention, and even the authority to override the spending decisions of local governing boards. It is therefore ironic that, at the very time an initiative has been placed on the statewide ballot to strengthen the state’s rainy day fund, the Legislature would consider statutory changes State should not be forcing districts to spend down their budget reserves | EdSource Today: