The Governor Has Spoken

The Governor proposed the initial state budget this past week and this is the START of the process.  While the proposal provides us with optimism, it is a long way from its conclusion and adoption in late June.  It is clear already that there is resistance in the Legislature about some of the provisions of this proposal and general discussion and the resistance within the Democratic Party.

The proposal is pretty consistent with what we thought would happen – though there are some interesting wrinkles. Without rehashing analysis of others I would highlight some points from a 30,000’ view.

·       Overall, consistent with Prop 30 and the budget proposal we see that the “bleeding” has stopped and there is hope that we will actually begin to see restoration – though the restoration portion is yet to be realized (BUT we are really close).

o   Additionally, there is a strong message about maintaining flexibility and moving even more to local control

o   There would be a requirement to write a District Accountability Plan

o   With the flexibility there would probably not be state approval of our plans but would be review in our annual audit.

·       As suggested previously we have moved from WSF (weighted student formula) to LCF (Local Control Funding).

·       There is a major policy shift with Adult Schools moving to Community Colleges.  The obvious impact on us.

·       The potential to move forward substantively on the online education issue as the Governor has addressed this issue in his proposal.

·       Certainly the mandate reforms and addition are welcome – as we have been advocates for a solution that looks something like this.

I will attempt to highlight other specifics over the coming days and weeks.

---