Placentia-Yorba Linda school district trustees call for 'full and fair funding' in new resolution
Of the
dozens of resolutions adopted by local governing boards each year,
easily one of the most significant was approved on a unanimous vote
last week by the elected trustees of the Placentia-Yorba Linda
Unified School District.
The
resolution calls for “full and fair funding” of the state's
public schools. Specifically, local trustees want the state
legislature to fund schools at the national average or higher by 2020
and at or above the average of the top 10 states nationally by 2025.
Currently,
state schools are funded at about $1,961 per-pupil less than the
national average – or $3,462 per-pupil less when adjusted for
California's status as a “high-cost” state. California trails the
average of the top 10 states by almost $7,000 in per-pupil funding.
Other
North County school districts are expected to consider similar
resolutions next month. The matter was on the Brea-Olinda Unified
School District's board agenda earlier this week.
The
“full and fair funding” resolution originated with the California
School Boards Association, which represents some 1,000 local school
boards and county boards of education throughout the state.
Representing
North County school district boards on the association's delegate
assembly are Placentia-Yorba Linda trustees Carrie Buck and Karin
Freeman and Robert Singer, a 38-year trustee for the Fullerton Joint
Union High School District.
The
resolution states some pretty dismal figures for school funding,
considering California is the world's sixth largest economy and has
the largest gross domestic product of any state in the nation.
Overall,
“the state falls in the nation's bottom quartile on nearly every
measure of public K-12 school funding and school staffing,” and
K-12 funding “has not substantially increased, on an
inflation-adjusted basis, for more than a decade,” according to the
resolution.
Among
the statistics cited in the resolution: The state ranks 45th
of 50 states in the percentage of taxable income spent on education,
41st in per-pupil funding, 45th in
pupil-teacher ratios and 48th in pupil-staff ratios, with
funding just this year returning to 2007 pre-recession levels.
On
another matter, Placentia-Yorba Linda trustees approved a first
interim report for the 2017 -18 fiscal year with a “positive
certification,” which means the 25,432-student district will meet
financial obligations for the current and two more fiscal years,
based on current projections.
However,
expenditures are expected to exceed income through June 2020,
according to the current year's first interim budget and multi-year
projections, with the lag in income made up from the district's
reserves, the cash stockpile built up in past years.
The
“reserve for future deficits” stands at $12.3 million this year,
with projected drops to $7.1 million next year and zero dollars the
year after. The projections do not include cost-of-living salary
increases.