SACRAMENTO >> The California Teachers Association (CTA) protested Gov. Gavin Newsom’s state budget in a virtual press conference analyzing Newsom’s May Revise (budget) on May 17.
David Goldberg, CTA President, noted he was refusing to let students’ education experience to be defined by cuts. “Students deserve more resources today,” he said. We are here in the (world’s) fifth largest economy yet our education funding ranks between the bottom and middle of all states. Our students need smaller class size, more counselors, school nurses and librarians.”
He went on that what students do not need is the uncertainty of Proposition 98, passed by an overwhelming majority in 1988 to guarantee a minimum of funding each year, being changed on a whim. “By every metric we see, polls, parents are still committed to funding our schools today,” he said. “We have a boom/bust cycle for the state budget that has students and educators on survival mode. We have to draft a consistent survival mode for our schools.”
Goldberg noted that one in eight American students are in California, while one in five students go to school hungry. Therefore, what happens in the state has a huge impact around the nation. “So, resources we use are not extra, but serve the most vulnerable in the U.S.,” he said. “We all deserve more robust consistent revenue in California. The funds that run our institutions are’ the bedrock of our society.” Goldberg also stressed the state today is in a massive deficit that has to be addressed.
He added, that while the state is facing a massive deficit, we refuse to accept that our students’ educational experience will be defined by years of cuts. Students deserve more resources today – smaller class sizes, school counselors, nurses, and librarians – not less.
“We’ve heard Gov. Newsom’s hollow promises of protecting public school funding today, at the expense of funding schools in the future,” he stressed. “Make no mistake this maneuver (May revise) is an assault on Prop. 98, and that’s how we take it.”
Following Goldberg was Karen Getman, attorney and school funding expert who has advocated on behalf of CTA many times. Part of the FY 23/24 budget included an $8.8 billion allocated for the FY 22/23 term as pre-payments of amounts due sometime in the future, as purposes of calculating Prop. 98 guarantees Getman pointed out.
“The $8.8 billion allocated FY22/23 was subtracted out when they calculated the base in the FY 23/24 term,” she said. “Now it has the impact of lowering the base and there’s another maneuver they’re doing, called spike protection (the sudden change in the price of a security like a stock, commodity, or currency), done in a way we think is inconsistent with the constitution. But it’s the subtracting out the $8.8 billion, where we get almost $12 billion less, just for those two (23/24, 24/25) years, it doesn’t carry forward.”
The deficit number Newsom presented last week, subtracts the $17.3 billion in cuts agreed to earlier from the $37.9-billion deficit estimate from January, according to the Los Angeles Times. But revenues have fallen short of expectations since January, escalating the budget problem by $7 billion. Newsom projects a shortfall of $27.6 billion in 2024-25, but California is making cuts and reductions to solve a total budget deficit of $44.9 billion this year. An April agreement between lawmakers and Newsom included $762 million in savings by pausing hiring for vacant state jobs. Newsom’s updated proposal permanently deletes 10,000 open positions.
Proposition 98, passed by California voters and enshrined in the California constitution, provides protections and “Essential services are on the chopping block. Educators are getting layoff notices. And now the floor of our public-school funding system is under threat.
Goldberg noted the state needs to increase the financial “pie” for all services. “We don’t want to get caught up in false divisions pitting one agency against another,” he said, “One in 10 students in California rely on Medi Cal. These children are in our classrooms and we’ll always advocate for their well-being.” He went on to state that they are raising awareness by letting the state legislature and the governor what is really at stake and how students, educators and the CTA are depending on them to get this issue right.
