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The Obama administration has put a hold on approving a second round of education stimulus money for California until Gov. Schwarzenegger responds to questions raised by school districts and parent advocates.
The groups — the Education Coalition and Parents and Students for Great Schools, led by Public Advocates – have challenged Schwarzenegger’s claim that the state will spend enough on K-12 schools to qualify for additional federal money. As a condition for receiving the money, California has agreed either to spend proportionally as much on education as on other programs, or to keep spending on education at a pre-recession level.
The groups charge that Schwarzenegger is weasling out of that responsibility by playing with the books. The administration has done so, the groups charge, by deferring payments to future years while counting them in current years. His proposed gas-tax swap, replacing the sales tax on gas with an excise tax, would have the effect of lowering the state’s obligation under Proposition 98 by $900 million in 2011-12.
About $200 million in additional stimulus money is at stake; additionally, the state would not be able to receive Race to the Top money until the federal government certified that the state met its spending obligation. The U.S. Department of Education has given the governor’s office until March 26 to respond to its inquiry.
- Irv Trinkle