Members of the Full Circle Fund, a Bay Area philanthropy made up of socially active leaders and entrepreneurs, has joined the call for giving school districts more autonomy and taxing authority.

Granting local voters the power to pass a limited surcharge of the property tax rate  is one policy recommendation of “EACH: A Vision for California’s Future.” The 11-page policy platform is the product of nine months of work by the 60-member Education Circle, one of four study groups within the Full Circle Fund.

A property surcharge would directly challenge of the limits imposed by Proposition 13.  It also could create equity problems – and likely lead to a lawsuit ­– since rich communities would more readily pass such a measure. So the Education Circle also urges establishing a state matching fund as an incentive for  low-wealth communities to raise revenue. The platform also urges bringing up California’s level of funding to the “national norm” and includes a useful graph  that compares states’  per student spending relative to its teachers’ salaries.

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By John Fensterwald on February 17th, 2010

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One way or the other, the California Teachers Association and business interests were headed for a mighty battle this November over taxes. Now it’s clear what they’ll be fighting over.

Delegates for the 325,000 member union voted to back initiatives to rescind corporate tax breaks (see initiatives #1412 and #1375), passed a year ago under cover of darkness, that eventually will cut state revenues by an estimated $1.7 billion. Backing up its vote with dollars, the CTA this week committed $587,000 to gather 434,000 signatures needed to put it on the ballot.

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By John Fensterwald on February 10th, 2010

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Twenty-two of state Sen. Joe Simitian’s colleagues in the Senate are co-sponsoring a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow lower the threshold for passing a local school parcel tax from two-thirds to 55 percent.

That’s an impressive number, except that Simitian, a Democrat from Palo Atlo, needs 27 votes – two-thirds of Senate – to move SCA 6 forward. And so far, as in years past, he can’t find one Republican willing to let voters decide for themselves.

Not willing to wait any longer, a new Bay Area-based group, Californians for Improved School Funding, has started circulating an initiative  that would achieve the same thing. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on January 25th, 2010

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• California will be among the first-round losers in the Race to the Top competition, but the second time will be a charm. The state will come up big in the summer.

• Congress (well, Nancy Pelosi) and the Obama administration will come to the state’s rescue again, with a subsidy of a few more billion dollars for K-12 and higher ed, as part of Stimulus II to ward off massive public employee layoffs. Then it will grant the state a waiver to cut K-12 spending below last year’s level, resulting in, of course, more pink slips.

• Republicans will will preach more local control but not one will vote to make it easier for local districts to tax themselves by making it easier to pass a parcel tax.

• The Ed Coalition, minus the California Teachers Association, will sue the state over its failure to fund adequately public education.

• California will finally nudge out Mississippi and Louisiana to be 50^th in Ed Week’s ranking in per pupil student spending.

Welcome to 2010, the year of doom. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on January 5th, 2010

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As long as we’re down to last-minute Christmas lists, consider Gov. Schwarzenegger’s. He’s hoping Uncle Sam will be his Secret Santa, with a gift certificate for $8 billion.

The Los Angeles Times reported that the governor will ask Washington for a big piece of  what would be the government’s second stimulus. And if the $8 billion doesn’t come, he vows the end of welfare as we know it, with the abolishment of CALWORKS, along with — listen up, big business — the rescission of the $2 billion in corporate tax cuts the Legislature and the governor himself snuck in this year.

No mention so far of education, although the Sacramento Bee reported that Schwarzenegger, as expected,  will seek a waiver from the Obama administration to reduce  K-14 spending. At the same time, he will cite, as one cause of the state’s troubles, the requirement under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the first stimulus program, that states maintain their level of education spending — or face penalties.

The Obama administration hasn’t committed to a second stimulus package, but the House passed a $175 billion jobs and infrastructure package before adjourning for the year.

By John Fensterwald on December 24th, 2009

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Denouncing Sacramento for a school district’s financial troubles may be satisfying — and valid –  but it’s a poor strategy for convincing voters to pass a parcel tax, according to pollsters who surveyed  voters in Santa Clara County last month.  Their advice to school trustees looking to a parcel tax to help survive the bleak next few years: Don’t whine and don’t scapegoat. It won’t cut it to blame the state for your district’s financial troubles. Instead, convince voters that you have a plan to improve core academic programs.

The pollsters’ conclusion, that passing a parcel tax would be tough but doable, follows last Tuesday’s election in which seven of 11 parcel taxes passed statewide. (Read more and comment on this post)

By John Fensterwald on November 8th, 2009

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