State to Cut From K-12 Budget

Christmas came early this year for K-12 funding, but districts will still have to tighten their belts given the latest financial news out of Sacramento.

In a noon time press conference, Governor Jerry Brown announced about $1 billion in cuts to public education, with about $79.6 million in cuts for K-12, far less than the nearly $1.5 billion in K-12 cuts originally projected. That is roughly half a day's loss in Average Daily Attendance.

K-12 transportation funding ($248 million) has been cut, and will leave districts to find ways to fund that mandate.

Almost all the trigger cuts discussed in the press conference are effective Jan. 1, 2012, while the reductions to school apportionments are effective Feb. 1.

"These cuts to the universities, to schools, they're not good. This is not the way we'd like to run California, but we have to live within our means," Gov. Brown said.

Community colleges will have to increase tuition by $10 dollars to a total of $46 per unit starting in the summer.

November revenues were actually up, according to State Controller John Chiang, with nearly $500 million fueled by a boost in personal income tax revenues.

"California must exercise fiscal discipline. No man gives what he does not have."

Brown has proposed to increase taxes to some of California's high earners to help fund public education, with a proposed ballot measure in November 2012. There is some support showing in recent polls.

Brown, however, is not taking the sentiment for granted.

"This is going to be a very difficult campaign to win the revenues," Brown said. "We'll have an opportunity on November for the people to vote additional revenue, almost $7 billion, or not. If they don't, we'll have even bigger cuts."

Glendora Unified discussed possible cuts to remain fiscally solvent ahead of the state budget report.

The district proposed reducing the 2012-2013 by $800,000 to maintain a 3 percent reserve, while cutting $675,000 in 2013-2014.

"Almost 20 percent of our funding is a deficit to us from the state," said Marc Chaldu, assistant superintendent of business services. "We're getting 80 cents on the dollar of what they actually owe us."

Glendora is looking at a deficit of just over $2 million for 2011-2012. The district would have to temporarily borrow $15 million to alleviate its cash flow difficiency.

The increase in Glendora recently has also put a dent into the district's funds. Glendora Unified will look into methods of conservation to keep costs as low as possible.

Charter Oak may have to cut expenditures by $300,000 in the 2013-2014 school year. Declining enrollment has also hurt the district, with a decline of 237 from Oct. 2010 to Oct. 2011, translating to a drop of $1.5 million in base revenue.

Brown said that the second round of triggers would materialize in the June budget, set to be discussed in January.

*This story corrects a previous verson which stated that Glendora Unified's budget deficit was $15 million.