March 18, 2008

One thin dime

Senate Leader Don Perata says Democrats won't leave Sacramento this summer "as long as the governor intends to cut education by even one dime." His members seem to be backing him up on this threat. So assuming they are serious, the next question becomes, "one dime" from what level? From what they got this year, from what they expect to get next year, from their per pupil amount? The definitions here could swing the answer by several billion dollars.

One reasonable interpretation would be per pupil spending. To give the schools the same amount of money per student next year as they are getting this year would cost about $1 billion more than the governor has proposed. Remember, the much discussed "$4 billion cut" is off the workload budget -- an inflated number that does not necessarily reflect what the schools have received or even what they expected to get next year.

If they coupled flat per-pupil spending with reforms allowing the schools to spend their money as they wish, districts could probably manage through the year with few if any layoffs.

Posted by dweintraub on March 18, 2008 7:23 AM