Last week, the Legislature finally passed - and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed - the 2010-11 state budget. This budget set a record as the latest state budget in California history.

 

It is clear that no one who cares about the welfare and education of children can be satisfied with this budget.

 

With this budget, Proposition 98, the minimum funding guarantee for education, is suspended, and schools will receive billions less than otherwise required under the law. And once again, the budget is balanced with little in the way of new revenues, relying instead on spending reductions, anticipated federal funds and accounting gimmicks. After $17 billion in cuts to education the past few years, overall K-12 education funding will remain fairly constant from last year's funding level.  Although this budget provides an increase in funding over the Governor's May Revise proposal of $1.7 billion, or approximately $275 per pupil, all of this money is deferred into the 2011-2012 school year.