The introductory sections of Assembly Bill 18 lay out, at great length, the complexity of California's education finance system – if anything so convoluted, opaque and irrational can be called a "system."

"The current system is not logical, with district revenues that are largely a historical artifact of spending in the 1970s combined with a confusing, bureaucratic, report-driven and burdensome system of categorical programs," the legislation declares.

Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, a Santa Monica Democrat who chairs the Assembly Education Committee, says she introduced the bill as a vehicle for making the $50 billion-plus that California spends on K-12 education each year more equitable, more effective and more transparent.

However, through many hours of hearings and private meetings, Brownley, the unions representing teachers and other school employees, school administrators and school boards could not reach a consensus on how school financing should be rejiggered, so she's put AB 18 on indefinite hold.

The very powerful California Teachers Association reportedly sought the hold because of the overall uncertainty about school finance.

But that doesn't mean that the Capitol has neglected the largest single chunk of the state budget – not by a long shot. Instead of simplifying and rationalizing school finance, however, Brownley, other Democratic legislators and Gov. Jerry Brown made it demonstrably worse.

They devised a secretive, last-minute bill – part of the budget – that tells school districts that if their state funds are reduced because the budget's rosy revenue assumptions don't materialize, they must ignore the shortfall and continue to employ teachers as if they had the money in hand.

Huh?

The ban on layoffs testifies to the immense clout that the CTA wields among the Legislature's majority Democrats.

Democrats and their allies are beginning work on a 2012 ballot measure package that would include new taxes and count on the CTA and other public employee unions for campaign funds.

By taking layoffs off the table, the legislation gives local teachers unions an advantage in negotiations with superintendents and school boards over how any revenue shortfall would be handled.

Another section would require the state to give schools about $2.1 billion in retroactive financing if the tax package either doesn't materialize or is rejected by voters – money the state wouldn't have – raising the stakes even more. Still another suspends oversight of financially troubled school districts, another goodie for the CTA.

The net effect is that school finance, already a bewildering welter of constitutional and statutory provisions that only a few in the Capitol understand, just became even denser and more complicated and irrational.

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Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters

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