Cutting School Funding Within Our Means

Proposition 76, the State Spending and School Funding Limits initiative, would do a number of things with the intent of trying to solve the state’s budget deficit.

According to the Legislative Analyst’s Office of California the main provisions of this initiative are an additional state spending limit, budget-related changes, school funding changes, and other changes related to things such as transportation funding and loans to other state funds. This initiative would also give the Governor greater power over appropriating the state-budget and would even give the Governor ultimate power of the budget in the case that the state legislature could not come to an agreement or in the case of an emergency.

Supporters of this initiative, headed by Governor Schwarzenegger, refer to it as the “Live Within Our Means Act” because of its limits on state spending. As the budget deficit continues to grow and grow each year, this proposition would hamper the ability of the state to spend more money than it actually has and to add to the growing deficit. Supporters also believe that these limits would help “fix the broken system in Sacramento” and “rebuild California”.

Opponents of this initiative, headed by Alliance for a Better California, refer to it as the “Cuts School Funding Act”, in reference to the contempt for Proposition 98. Passed in 1988, this proposition “guaranteed kindergarten through community college education a minimum amount of state and property tax revenue each year.” That guaranteed amount “is largely based on the health of the state’s economy,” according to EdSource. The problem with Prop 98 is that fund allocations can be tampered with in order to give less money to the education system. Opponents feel like the state is “shortchanging” the education system and “breaking [their] word to our schools and kids” by not respecting the “voter approved minimum level of school funding”. Prop 76 would give the Governor even greater power to cut school funding and disregard the provisions of Prop 98.

Something needs to be done about the budget, but perhaps the answer should not lie in the Governor’s hands alone. Proposition 76 may or may not hold the answer to our state’s economic problems, so we all need to evaluate it before adding it to our constitution.