Governor’s school funding formula under legal attack
SACRAMENTO — Local education leaders are suing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in an effort to recoup funding they claim was promised for California’s public schools and community colleges.
The petition, filed by the California Teachers Association in Sacramento Superior Court on Tuesday, states Schwarzenegger failed to provide the minimum school funding guaranteed under voter-approved Proposition 98 and mandated by the state constitution. Specifically, the suit claims the schools have been funded at a combined level of $3.1 billion below what is required by state law for the next and last fiscal years.
The suit contends that Schwarzenegger and California’s director of finance, Tom Campbell, ignored the state constitution and improperly calculated the funding due K-14 education for fiscal years 2004-05 and 2005-06. It asks the court to order that those amounts be recalculated, claiming that doing so will bring the governor’s office in conformance with the law.
Harry Keiley, president of the Santa Monica Malibu Classroom Teachers Association, said the suit is a response to failures of Schwarzenegger to provide the schools with needed funding he promised.
“The fact of the matter is for the past several years we have had unprecedented cuts to school funding,” Keiley said. “Not only did the governor break promises, he broke the law.
“His plans will be catastrophic if they were to pass for public education.”
According to the lawsuit, in January of 2004 Schwarzenegger made an agreement with the education community in which he said if public schools gave $2 billion to help balance the budget, that money would be restored when revenues increased.
The lawsuit asserts state revenues increased under the agreement and that Proposition 98 and Chapter 213 schools were entitled to a share of those additional revenues they didn’t receive.
Since 1988, a voter-approved amendment to California’s constitution has protected K–12 education from cuts that have struck some of the other services supported through the state’s budget. Proposition 98 also ensures that schools enjoy a large share of any increase in state revenues. The calculation of the guarantee is very complicated, as is the politics of funding it. The dynamic process usually involves recalculations for previous years as well as estimates for the current year. The Proposition 98 allocation depends on changes in enrollment, per capita personal income and projections of state tax revenues, according to www.edsource.org, an online publication that provides information on statewide education policies.
By refusing to uphold the law, Schwarzenegger shortchanged schools by $1.8 billion in 2004-05, according to the lawsuit.
Schwarzenegger then used “unlawfully low” figures to calculate the school-funding guarantee for 2005-06, reducing school funding by an estimated $1.3 billion, according to the lawsuit. Schwarzenegger’s actions not only shortchange current students, but also have a cumulative and illegal effect on future school budgets, according to the lawsuit.
H.D. Palmer, a spokesman with the governor’s finance department, said his office doesn’t believe the lawsuit will stand up in court.
“Last November, the legislature took the same approach the governor took in putting his budget together this year,” Palmer said. “It was the same approach the legislature approved on a bi-partisan basis last month.
“We believe two branches of state government arriving at the same conclusion is more important in this case.”
In addition, Palmer said Schwarzenegger maintained levels of education funding in recent months that were higher than those required under Proposition 98.
“It’s ironic that at the same time this lawsuit is being filed over the funding formula, the person who saved California schools from being shortchanged by the funding formula is none other than Gov. Schwarzenegger,” Palmer said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 10, 2005. Read the original PDF.