The old saying among Capitol insiders that "what goes around comes around" is especially applicable to the perennial battle over financing public schools, by far the largest single item of the state budget.
It involves not only a lot of money, 40-plus percent of the budget, but also powerful interest groups, such as the California Teachers Association, and, of course, the emotional impact of its effect on 6 million children.
It all began three decades ago after voters passed Proposition 13, which sharply limited property taxes. Although the state assumed responsibility for schools, the CTA-dominated "education coalition" quickly saw it was losing the competition for state funds and sought refuge.
Educators' first thought was to ask voters for a special tax devoted to schools, but results of a CTA-commissioned poll chilled that notion.
Political adviser Richie Ross told CTA that, "Voters did not feel a need for more money existed and were shocked to find that 55 percent of the state budget funded public education … Your base of support is too flimsy to proceed. You don't have a really hard core. In fact, on every question the number of people who are certain they are for you is smaller than the number of people who are certain they are against you."
The education coalition then shifted to Plan B – two measures that would first loosen up the "Gann Limit" on state spending imposed by voters after Proposition 13, and then provide schools with what was described as a "fair share" of state revenue.
The Gann Limit modification failed in June 1988, but the second measure, Proposition 98, was passed by voters in November 1988. It has been the focal point of the school finance debate ever since, including the current squabble over closing a projected $40 billion deficit during the next 18 months.
Amid that wrangling, CTA has filed a new ballot measure that would increase sales taxes by a penny, raising more than $5 billion a year for schools over Proposition 98's guarantee. CTA President David Sanchez, writing in the union's magazine, declares that "the current budget process for funding public education in California is failing our schools," which is triply ironic.
First, the CTA enacted that process in the first place via Proposition 98; second, one of its CTA-written provisions allows school aid to drop when state revenue declines; third, when the CTA campaigned for Proposition 98, it told voters that it would adequately finance schools without new taxes.
The new CTA measure not only recalls the 1980s-vintage battle but echoes a CTA-sponsored initiative eight years ago that would have compelled California to match the national average in per-pupil spending but was dropped when then-Gov. Gray Davis agreed to boost school spending by $1.8 billion a year.
That makes one wonder whether the new measure is for real, or merely a bargaining chip in this year's jousting over school money.
Call The Bee's Dan Walters, (916) 321-1195. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/walters.
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