Dec 22 2008
The Sale’s Tax Plan - Brought to you courtesy of the California Teacher’s Association.
One of the things wrong with school funding is that the formula is so complex, no one can really figure it out. But one thing is clear - of General Fund revenues, almost 50% goes to K-12 funding.
The California Teacher’s Association has proposed a new idea on the sales tax - a 1 cent increase to fund schools. This is to avoid potential cuts that the Legislature wants the schools to take. Both the Democrats and the Republicans - as well as the Governor - have proposed cutting school funding (by different amounts, but schools will still have to take cuts).
The CTA says that just because the California budget system is broken, doesn’t mean that the students and schools should be hit hard. I tend to agree. But the CTA and I disagree on how these cuts affect schools.
I think that the CTA should be disbanded. If you do that, then teachers get to take home more pay and schools can have more flexibility in what to do with good, and bad, teachers. Schools can have more flexibility in how to spend their money if the CTA isn’t involved. Prop. 98 - what guarantees a certain level of funding for the schools, is one of the big problems about why the California budget system is a mess. If you have a constitutional requirement that almost 50% of General Fund revenues go to one program, and that the state has to backfill any losses the local governments have in education funding because of low property tax revenues, then you have a problem with being able to put money where it is needed. Tying up money from the General Fund causes problems - it isn’t a solution.
Creating a special 1 cent sales tax that goes straight to schools (and would have to pass the ballot), isn’t the best idea. Putting more restrictions on what money can be spent in various places isn’t a solution to the budget problem. It is simply adding more restrictions and issues and complicating the budget.
Spending money on solving real education problems is a good start. Spending money in the same old won’t help anything, and certainly doesn’t hurt students and schools.
The only thing, at this point, that can help students and schools is a new system with better teachers.
Good points all.