“Understanding California's School Funding Crisis: Why it's happening, what it means, and how it can be resolved” is our site of the day

Yesterday, an on-line briefing for California media was webcast live from UC Berkeley on California’s educational financing-- “Understanding California's School Funding Crisis: Why it's happening, what it means, and how it can be resolved.”

This may be one of the best encapsulations of this California budget issue with nuances about a welter of statistics that are out there. You don’t have to be a member of the media to watch this program and learn how the proposed cuts will affect students, teachers, and schools. It is now archived for viewing.

The briefing lasts about an hour and a half. The panelists are experts and know their subject backwards and forwards.

John Fensterwald, editorial writer at the San Jose Mercury News, and author of the education blog on the Merc, “Educated Guess” moderated.

Joining him in delivering presentations and then answering questions afterwards were:

• Elizabeth Hill, California’s legislative analyst, on her on her alternative to the Governor’s proposal for 10 percent across the board cuts.

• Goodwin Liu, assistant professor of law, UC Berkeley Law School, and co-author of a new report on school finance reform and on a new way of thinking about school funding, and

• Rick Pratt, associate executive director, California School Boards Association, on how the proposed budget cuts will affect students, teachers and schools.

You will be able to understand the cuts to education from various benchmark levels including those guaranteed by Prop 98 now California’s Constitution, from last year’s level, in the Governor’s proposed budget, and in the LAO’s proposal as well. Also, how they fit in with the calendar—with the state passing it’s budget including educational funding for localities after those localities have sent out layoff notices and after they have adopted what turn out to be tentative budgets.

The panel discusses at budget alternatives, including a major new proposal to reform the school finance system in “Getting Beyond the Facts,” co-authored by Professor Liu along with Alan Bersin, a member of the California State Board of Education and former California Secretary of Education, and Michael Kirst, a former President of the California State Board of Education.

“Getting Beyond the Facts” was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It builds on studies conducted last year by Stanford University's Institute for Research on Education Policy and Practice, which found the state's school finance system "fundamentally unfair."

It finds the current finance system is "flawed" and fails to help students-and schools-reach performance goals set by the state. According to Liu, low-income students in high-poverty areas don't get adequate resources and nearly all students "suffer from a system that fails to support academic achievement."

The report finds that school districts receive revenues through complex formulas that, as a whole, don't take into account student needs or the regional differences in the cost of providing education. Also it finds that the proliferation of about 80 different student aid programs generates costly compliance burdens, onerous paperwork, and regulatory overload that limit the ability of school officials to meet local needs.

Liu, Bersin, and Kirst propose a new school funding framework based on four principles:

• Revenue allocations should be guided by student needs. Dollars should be allocated so that all students, including English learners, low-income students, and students with disabilities, can meet state standards for academic achievement.

• Revenue allocations should be adjusted for regional cost differences. California is a large state with tremendous diversity. Education dollars need to have the same purchasing power from region to region, especially when it comes to hiring and retaining high-quality teachers.

• The system as a whole needs to be simple, transparent, and easily understood by legislators, school officials, and the public.

• Reforms should apply to new money going forward, without reducing any district's current funding level.

Kudos and thanks to the California Media Collaborative--a new non-profit initiative for enhancing coverage of key California issues—sorely needed in this era of shrinking traditional media covering our state. And also to the co-sponsors-- the Commonwealth Club of California, the Education Writers Association, and the Chief Justice Earl Warren Institute on Race, Ethnicity and Diversity at UC Berkeley Law School.