برچسب: Projects

  • Legislative analyst projects bigger funding drop for schools, community colleges

    Legislative analyst projects bigger funding drop for schools, community colleges


    Credit: Alison Yin / EdSource

    The Legislative Analyst’s Office is warning superintendents and school boards working on their next year’s budget that more storm clouds are on the fiscal horizon. 

    In a Feb. 15 report, the LAO forecast that further erosion of state revenues will likely reduce state funding for TK-12 by an additional $7.7 billion — $5.2 billion in 2023-24 and $2.7 billion in 2025-26. That would be on top of the $13.7 billion shaving that Gov. Gavin Newsom announced in his proposed budget for the current budget cycle that he released just a month ago. 

    When he presented the proposed state budget in January, Newsom built in a small cost-of-living increase and vowed to preserve funding commitments for schools and community colleges, but the deteriorating revenue estimates may force him to reconsider that promise when he revises the budget in May. 

    The California Department of Finance, which disagrees with the LAO’s financial projections for this year and next, won’t revise its budget forecast until the May revision. However, its report on January revenues, also released in mid-February, confirmed that revenues were heading in the wrong direction. Receipts from the personal income tax, the largest source of state revenue, were down $5 billion — 25% — from the $20.4 billion that the state had forecast. For the full fiscal year that started July 1, total state revenues are down $5.9 billion from a forecast of $121.5 billion.  

    About 40% of the revenues to the state’s general fund is directed to schools and community colleges through a 4-decade-old formula, Proposition 98.

    The single biggest fiscal challenge facing Newsom and the Legislature is how to resolve a massive shortfall in Proposition 98 funding for 2022-23. Newsom and the Legislature were mostly in the dark when they passed that state budget based on a revenue estimate in June 2022. Because of storms and floods the previous winter, the U.S. Treasury delayed the tax filing date for 2022 from April 15 to Nov. 16. Thus, officials lacked reliable data, and it turned out they were way off. The shortfall for Proposition 98 was $12 billion. 

    Because school districts have already spent that money, Newsom is proposing to hold them and community colleges harmless without counting the overfunding as part of the Proposition 98 minimum guarantee. In a trailer bill that his administration released, he calls for a one-time $9 billion supplemental payment that, due to the unique, delayed tax deadline, would be paid from the general fund, not out of current or future funding for Proposition 98. It would be repaid over five years, starting in 2025-26. 

    Opposition of the Legislative Analysts’s Office

    The LAO is skeptical of the legality and wisdom of pushing off the solution for the 2022-23 deficit into the future; it’s recommending the Legislature reject the ideas and instead use the $9 billion cushion in the Proposition 98 reserve account to cover the shortfall. 

    “The Governor’s proposed funding maneuver is bad fiscal policy, sets a problematic precedent, and creates a binding obligation on the state that will worsen future deficits and require more difficult decisions,” it said in a report issued last week

    It recommends balancing the budget by cutting billions of uncommitted dollars for new programs, the largest of which is $2.8 billion for creating more community schools; eliminating the $1 billion cost-of-living adjustment for the Local Control Funding Formula; cutting $500 million for low-emissions school buses and reducing costs and restructuring other programs. One is the Expanded Learning and Opportunities Program, which provides free after-school activities for low-income students. 

    Newsom would use $5 billion of the Proposition 98 rainy-day fund to cover the budget shortfall this year and next while paying for the 1% cost-of-living adjustment next year. That would leave $4 billion in the reserve to cover at least part of a bigger deficit that the LAO is predicting.

    Lurking in the background is the option of deferrals — issuing IOUs for funding that would be repaid in subsequent years. That tactic was used extensively after the Great Recession when state revenues plunged. It requires that districts and charter schools borrow short-term to cover the delay in state funding.

    School advocates clearly prefer Newsom’s approach and are critical of the LAO’s recommendations, although they aren’t ready to suggest further cuts if revenues remain slow.

    “We don’t want to start negotiating with ourselves over which programs to cut, but need to be prepared for a challenging budget if revenues do not rebound in the second half of this fiscal year,” Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors Group, an education consultancy, wrote in a letter to his clients last week.

    Edgar Zazueta, executive director of the Association of California School Administrators, criticized the LAO and called on Newsom and legislators to protect their investments in schools. 

    “The LAO’s recommendations in response to the fiscal picture are potentially devastating to schools and especially students,” he said. “The programs that could be impacted are good for students, and we’ll be urging the Legislature and governor to do everything to protect California students.”





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  • California Subject Matter Projects are rare gift for teachers seeking inspiration

    California Subject Matter Projects are rare gift for teachers seeking inspiration


    Credit: Courtesy of Tom Courtney

    As a guide teacher and induction mentor, I am worried about the future of our profession.

    Nearly half of all California teachers quit before their fifth year. Teachers like me know that it isn’t just about throwing in more troops alongside our new recruits. Teacher morale, teacher self-efficacy, and teacher autonomy have never been more worrisome.

    The more you listen to new teachers, like I often do, the more you realize: It’s not about what these teachers think of teaching. It’s about the way they feel.

    I believe that what teachers need, but seldom get, are opportunities to celebrate victories for ourselves, to feel empowered. As an induction candidate recently told me, “I want to watch my kids leave at the end of the day and think, ‘Wow, I really taught something special today.’”

    This is what every teacher I know, the veteran and the new, needs to feel.

    So, whenever a new teacher candidate calls me looking for that feeling, I send them to the same place that I go for a recharge: The California Subject Matter Project. The response is always the same: “What’s that, Tom?”

    And that worries me a little because at times it seems this amazing resource on teaching is the best-kept secret in education.

    I think it’s the perfect time to make it the worst-kept secret.

    The California Subject Matter Project is a collection nine initiatives operating out of UC and Cal State campuses up and down the state. Essentially, picture in your mind an organization of experts in all content areas you can think of: art, history, science, math, reading, writing, all housed on a UC or Cal State campus. And the best part is, these offices are found on campuses throughout California.

    The purpose of the projects is to create seeds of strong teaching around many disciplines. The reason why it’s such an essential organization is that its impartial, filled with very smart academics, and has no other agenda but to connect with willing participating districts, schools and teachers. 

    Each location, led by a regional director, creates and connects empowering research-based, content-focused outreach programs that teachers, frankly, don’t see enough of at their school sites. If ever.

    Removed from the politics surrounding so many education issues, the California Subject Matter Project is focused on the actual learning and teaching. Under its umbrella, smaller content-specific projects (like art, math, global education) offer rich and engaging programs directed to exactly the teachers who need them most. And they do it in a way that is pro-equity and pro-access for marginalized student populations, like many of my students. They also have a lot of fun.

    For example, I am a proud teacher leader with one of the Subject Matter’s projects, the California Reading and Literacy Project. I now join my colleagues to learn, grow, reflect, and share research-driven approaches to reading. Our project hosts virtual book studies, conferences and invitationals, and runs professional development that always exceeds my expectations.

    When I attend any of these events, I feel empowered, and I know I am in the company of teachers who feel the same way. Through just this initiative, I have learned things I feel I should have gotten a long time ago — like how to incorporate phonics in small dynamic groups at middle school, collect a lifetime supply of great literature for small groups, and the value of having my students write authentically.

    But the California Reading and Literacy Project is just one of many projects you can connect with. For instance, I am also a member of California Science Project, California History Project, and the California Global Education Project. Each one of these spaces is, as my induction candidate Kelly Gonzales calls them, “a breath of fresh air,” and each is a place where I can be exposed to dozens of things that I wouldn’t be privy to at my school site.

    I also have gained many friends from many different work environments. I can now see, on those tough days, that I am not alone, and know where to go to get real, authentic help as a teacher and a person of conscience. These friendships have helped me better understand what I need to advocate for in regard to my own students, and that empowers me too. It gives me a sense of autonomy. It gives me a sense of authentic purpose. 

    In the California Subject Matter Project spaces, I know I am around academics and professionals seeking to better education, not better their results on a math or reading test alone. And in many ways, it’s what I had always been needing, but didn’t have, until I found them.

    How to join and tell them Tom sent you

    If you can use a little recharge in your teaching, or if you need a massive one, I’d like to strongly encourage you to reach out to one of the subject matter projects too. Choose an area in which you teach and are passionate about. To find contact information for the region nearest you, look here.

    Teach in a rural area? Not to worry. Many subject matter programs are also available virtually, so you may be surprised how much amazing professional development, sometimes with a stipend, is available over Zoom.

    And you may just be surprised at how much you, like I still do, love teaching again.

    •••

    Thomas Courtney is a sixth-grade humanities and English language arts teacher at Millennial Tech Middle School in southeast San Diego.

    The opinions in this commentary are those of the author. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.





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