California must shift its priorities in 2020 to focus on solving the education funding crisis

Note to readers: Each week through December 2019, a selection of our 101 California Influencers answers a question that is critical to California’s future. Topics include education, healthcare, environment, housing and economic growth.

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In a state ravaged by wildfires, frustrated by the worsening homelessness emergency, and consumed by highly-charged debates over criminal justice, income inequality and health care, the slower-moving crisis of California’s struggling public schools is often marginalized in the state Capitol.

That’s about to change. Californians will be asked next November to vote for a large-scale tax increase to dramatically increase education funding. Over the next several months, the pressure on Governor Newsom and the state legislature to shape their own funding package will intensify.

“In order to provide a high-quality education that improves outcomes for all students and helps close achievement gaps, our schools require significantly greater resources,” said California School Boards Association Executive Director Vernon Billy. “California has an education funding crisis and any policy “solution” that fails to account for this reality is essentially grandstanding.”

But along with the calls for more funding also come warnings for the need to spend that money more effectively.

“We collect vast amounts of information about district finances and student achievement, but we are still unable to assess whether funding variations are producing improved results and how districts and schools can learn from each other to accelerate achievement,” said California Charter Schools Association President Myrna Castrejon. “As Californians go to the polls in 2020 to consider increasing funding, let’s also prioritize using funding well and transparently.”

Other Influencers cited alternative potential sources for school funding, such as a reallocation of California State Lottery revenues.

“Let’s investigate the disparity between record-breaking revenues and the lottery’s contribution to California’s public education system,” said State Senator Ling Ling Chang (R-Diamond Bar). “Every dollar wasted by the CA Lotto is another dollar taken away from students and public schools.”

State Senator Connie Leyva (D-Chino) urged that financial resources be targeted toward at-risk and low-income students.

“Every student in California—regardless of where he or she may live or where they may attend school—should have access to the basic building blocks that lead to future success,” said Leyva, who chairs the Senate Education Committee. “Access to these critical resources should not depend on a child’s zip code or school district, but they should instead be the bare minimum upon which we build the rest of the education system so that students may thrive.”

Christine Robertson, Executive Director of the San Luis Coastal Education Foundation, pointed to the danger posed by burgeoning teacher and school employee pension liabilities.

“Rising pension costs are consuming a growing share of school district budgets, reducing available funding for existing programs that benefit kids,” Robertson said. “Left unaddressed, the result will likely be larger class sizes and fewer intervention and enrichment programs… The state’s top priority should be ensuring the financial viability of local school districts to implement and sustain these programs.”

Funding concerns also shape debate over the state’s public colleges and universities.

“California families continue to worry about the cost of college and access to our four-year universities at a time when a college degree is more valuable than ever,” said Michele Siquieros, President of the Campaign for College Opportunity. “Our leaders should not miss a chance to craft financial aid policy and expanded access to our universities that help students reach their college dreams and power this economy in the 21st century.”

California Community Colleges Chancellor Eloy Oakley described the urgency of the situation.

“50 percent of community college students experienced food insecurity, 60 percent experienced housing insecurity and 19 percent have been homeless,” Oakley said. “Students shouldn’t have to sleep in cars or turn to food pantries while they are striving at college to improve their lives.”

College Futures Foundation President Monica Lozano outlined a plan for stabilizing higher education costs.

“Currently, institutions are at the mercy of each year’s state budget, and therefore operate reactively. Meanwhile, students face constant uncertainty about tuition costs and services,” Lozano said. “We cannot afford this piecemeal approach, nor the inequitable outcomes it produces. Policymakers and educators need stable funding with multi-year budgets to make better resource allocation decisions.”

Kim Belshe, Executive Director of First 5 LA, offered a reminder of the society-wide benefits of improved public education.

“We are in the fourth year of declining birthrates nationwide, continuing a steep decline that began in 2008 during the Great Recession. This will have ripple effects on every system and sector, including our education and future workforce,” Belshe said. “For this next generation of Californians, making sure that we successfully educate them is vital to their prosperity as well as ours.”

This story was originally published December 15, 2019 at 7:00 AM with the headline "California must shift its priorities in 2020 to focus on solving the education funding crisis."