Brown’s Budget Proposal Keeps Schools Preparing For the Worst

Despite Gov. Jerry Brown’s optimism over prospects that voters will approve tax hikes over deep education budget cuts, schools are wary those tax revenues will materialize.

After past failed attempts to get tax increases before voters to save public school districts from issuing pink slips, school districts –  fearing possible overspending – are not counting on those future tax hikes pulling through. Even if they do, districts say the revenue won't arrive in time before they must make cuts for the school year.

In a press statement, State Schools Chief Tom Torlakson pinned hopes on state revenues to stave off new “across-the-board cuts,” that the tax increases would help “finally turn the tide after years of devastating reductions to school budgets statewide.”

But school districts may have reason not to have a little more faith.

Past revenue projections fell short and economic analysts continue to call Brown’s latest projections way too optimistic.

All the while, school districts say they will continue to plan for the unknown.

As Glendora Unified and Charter Oak Unified wait for final word from LA County Office of Education, budget figures continue to rise and fall dramatically.

“There are three scenarios floating around and it’s so ever changing,” said Kathy Perkins, chief business officer for Charter Oak  “First we heard there will be a $13 cut per student, now the latest scenario, we’re told, is $370 per student. It is like a roller coaster.”

For Charter Oak Unified, a possible $370 per student loss will result in $1.6 million cut to the district.

Glendora Unified district officials say they are facing a similar dilemma.

Marc Chaldu, assistant superintendant of Glendora Unified, said they are creating a contingency plan to be prepared for a worst-case scenario, one that can result in a $2.7 million loss to the district.

A good scenario, said Chaldu, would be flat funding for the year. The proposed increased taxes would only decrease some of cash deferrals that affected the district’s cash flows over the years.

But the proposed cuts to education include scrapping transportation funding and the Transitional Kindergarten program, which was to start in the fall of this year. The Governor has proposed these reductions without a ballot proposal, drawing ire from educators and parents.

Such reductions, say analysts, will require political and legal maneuvering if Brown expects to get the measure past lawmakers.

But school districts can’t wait for legal or voter outcomes to draft their budgets. By mid-March school districts present their budgets to their boards, sending out pink slip notices at that time. They can’t wait for the June legislative budget deadline to begin negotiations with teacher unions, and awaiting the November election outcomes would be too late.

School districts, using the January budget as a template, say they must prepare for the worst. Worst-case scenario planning usually includes pink slips, drawing protests from teacher unions.

“It’s devastating, but we have to negotiate with our unions to see what we could do,” said Perkins. “We have been surviving like this for the last four years. Now I feel like it’s getting to be the norm.”