Over my 26 years as a schools superintendent, I've seen many budget crises come and go. There's always been a pattern of binge-and-cringe; actually the pattern is that there is no pattern. One year schools are blessed with bountiful funds, the next year it's a state budget crisis that requires schools to significantly reduce. The blessings I mention don't happen that often, aren't that bountiful, and result in California school funding that still significantly trails the average other states spend on students.
All of this relates to the unprecedented fiscal state of emergency the governor has declared and how it will impact schools. Frankly, having teary-eyed third graders stand in front of the state capitol with signs won't have much effect, given the overall crisis that California is facing.
Over the years, we have learned to live with an unusual set of circumstances in trying to plan for the current year, the coming year, let alone future years. We are required to have accurate staffing scenarios by the end of February for the next school year, not knowing if we have the funds to afford that level of personnel. There have been times (more than a few) when school has already started with that level of personnel and the state legislature still hasn't provided a budget, missing the "required" deadline by several weeks.
As for the current situation, there is no great hope that solutions are out there to improve the funding. We don't have the option that the state parks system has - close down certain facilities until there is enough money to re-open. I don't think we can sit here and say that, given the 10 percent across-the-board reduction, we are going to reduce instructional days by 10 percent. Actually, if the end result is a 10 percent across-the-board reduction for schools, the actual toll will be greater. The 10 percent hit to special education services will have to be absorbed by the regular education budget, since the special ed children have a guaranteed level of service - whether the school district or county office of education takes a hit or not.
However, there is one thing we could certainly hope for: take the financial hit but, in return, have complete say on how the funding can be used. For years we have heard that state government will finally relent on all of the specially-funded, categorical programs that schools have to deal with (and this is not even including the federally-funded categorical funds). These are the funds that are restricted in their use, and the result is that schools are hamstrung. In other words, there are monies not being spent because of the strings attached that limit where the dollars can go, while other programs suffer for lack of funds. It seems that too many politicians have attachments to these special interests.
Interestingly, I can think of only two programs over the last 26 years that truly benefited the schools to a significant extent. And it certainly has nothing to do with the lottery. Promises were made back in the early 1980s that the state lottery would not be used to cover the state's funding responsibilities. It was expected that these dollars would go for extras. That has not been the case.
One was the voter-approved "guaranteed funding for schools" Proposition 98. This has just been undone by the governor's current proposal. The other was the class-size reduction funding in the mid-90s. Interestingly, Governor Pete Wilson seemingly took this initiative upon himself. It appeared to have little involvement from the Legislature, because the cynic in me says that there would have been a slew of special interests built in. As a result, in less than a month before the start of school in the initial year, Wilson came out with a plan to reduce class sizes that went into effect immediately. The speed with which this happened, in government action terms, was unprecedented.
It would take a bold move by Schwarzenegger to lessen the requirements schools have had to deal with and still must deal with. I'm not saying this is the ideal solution, but it makes more sense than some of the other current budgetary considerations, such as (1) the ballot propositions that would give four Southern California Indian casinos a special deal (even if it supposedly raises some funds for the state, why these four?) or (2) releasing inmates from state prisons.
Last June the governor proclaimed that 2008 would be "the year of education." At the time, we wondered - knowing what was being forecast at that time - how that could possibly be. We are finding out now the cruel irony of that statement.