The week before Christmas, leaders of California’s large urban school districts dispatched a wish list to their version of Santa – Gov. Gavin Newsom. San Diego Unified Superintendent Fabiola Bagula was among those leaders.
The list included changes to how schools were funded and changes to transitional kindergarten requirements. Here’s a preview of what district leaders were hoping to see in Newsom’s upcoming budget.
On School Funding
One of the districts’ budget asks is for the state to begin to fund schools based on enrollment rather than on average daily attendance. California is one of only seven states that funds schools based on average daily attendance which, in the age of post-Covid chronic absenteeism, means schools miss out on a lot of money because of student absences.
There’s been a yearslong effort by some reformers to switch to funding strictly based on enrollment, which advocates have argued is a more equitable system. A 2022 study found that 90 percent of California schools would receive more funding if that switch happened.
There’s also been some momentum for the change. Last year, Newsom signed a bill that authorized the state’s Legislative Analyst’s Office to create a report detailing how a shift to enrollment-based funding would impact the state – but that’s just a first step.
There are also potential pitfalls of switching to an enrollment-based funding system. Research shows chronic absenteeism has an incredibly detrimental impact on student success, and funding schools based on average daily attendance ensures officials work to drive down absenteeism. If that motivation disappeared, would officials still work as hard to drive down absenteeism?
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
On Transitional Kindergarten
This year marks the end of California’s phase-in period for transitional kindergarten. Starting in fall, all kids who turn four by Sept. 1 are guaranteed a place in transitional kindergarten, the new, free grade that precedes kindergarten. For families in San Diego Unified, however, there will likely be no big changes. That’s because district officials decided to jump two feet in from the get-go and offer transitional kindergarten to all four-year-olds, phased rollout be damned.
In the wish list sent to Newsom, however, district leaders asked for something else: increased funding for transitional kindergarten, so adult-to-child ratios can be reduced.
Ratios have stayed at 12:1 for the past couple of years but were slated to be reduced to 10:1 this year. That reduction could have been nixed had the state’s budget situation looked more dour, but in a preview of his proposed budget Newsom announced his transitional kindergarten program will be fully funded.
That’s good news for transitional kindergarten educators dealing with a mess of rowdy four-year-olds. Those ratios make a big difference.
There was also a consequence to the district’s eagerness to open transitional kindergarten to all four-year-olds instead of following the state’s phased rollout. The youngest four-year-olds were required to be in classrooms with 10:1 ratios, lest districts pay a fine. To avoid paying that fine, San Diego Unified officials had to contort their classrooms and reserve certain classes for the youngest students.
“That’s not how you would want to build your UTK classrooms,” board member Richard Barrera said.
Now that the transitional kindergarten program is fully funded, the district can construct classes like it would any other grade.
On Special Education Funding
There seems to be a perennial shortage of teachers in states like California, but no educator is in shorter supply than those who work in special education. In the letter to Newsom, districts pleaded for an increase in funding for special education services.
“Across the state, the number and percent of students requiring special education services is increasing. In particular, diagnosis of moderate and severe special needs are increasing as a percentage of the overall student population, and as a percentage of the overall students with disabilities,” officials wrote.
It doesn’t help that special education services are often the most costly services districts provide because of the need for specialized certifications, smaller adult-to-child ratios and high turnover.
On Immigrant Families
With President Donald Trump returning to the White House, concerns about whether he’ll follow through with his promises to deport millions of undocumented people living in America have hit schools hard. Attempting to protect immigrant students and families was the last priority on the list, but the letter didn’t include a specific ask. In fact, it mostly just praised the proactive steps Newsom’s administration has taken to “Trump-proof,” California.
“Our districts stand ready to partner with your administration to protect students and families from oppressive and unjust immigration actions,” the leaders wrote.
Related: California lawmakers have advanced multiple bills that would make it more difficult, but not impossible, for federal agents to arrest people for potential deportation on or near public school campuses.
What They’re Getting
Newsom released a preview of his proposed budget for next year, and one encouraging takeaway for educators is that unlike previous years that featured fiscal shortfalls, the state is projecting a “modest surplus.” Still, there are still lots of unanswered questions about how education spending will shake out, San Diego Unified board member Cody Petterson said.
“There are some promising signs, specifically on (the Expanded Learning Opportunities Program) and TK funding, but the initial communication is short on details,” Petterson said. “Those will be forthcoming on Friday, so we’ll know a lot more at that time. We have our fingers crossed.”
Content Bouncing Around My Mind Palace
- In 2023, former Democratic Assemblymember Wendy Carrillo crashed into parked cars while driving drunk, derailing a run for Los Angeles City Council. She’s since spearheaded a law recently signed by Gov. Newsom that will require schools to teach something she said she didn’t know in high school – that alcohol is bad.
- A new report funded by the California Teacher’s Association, the state’s largest teachers union, found that four in ten teachers had considered leaving the profession. Of those teachers, 77 percent reported that financial strain played a role in their consideration.
- The number of homegrown students enrolled at University of California schools rose slightly from last year. The number of undergraduates enrolled at UC schools also reached 198,718 – a new record.
The switch to enrollment based funding is nothing more than another attempt to avoid accountability in our schools. It was defeated in the past, and hopefully will not return.
Several years ago there was a huge scandal involving a charter that was being paid for “paper students”, students that were signed up (i.e. “enrolled”) but not actually attending. Everyone – rightly – decried this.
Now the public schools want the opportunity to do the same?
Why? Because it makes it easier for them to get their money. Less work involved. And who doesn’t want that?
Maybe parents?
SPED funding most certainly needs to be reformed. It should be worked into the LCFF in the same way there are additions to funding for other special groups of students.
EXCEPT if that happened there needs to be more specific designation of funding uses – otherwise, as we know (the UT did a great article on this in April 2019), the schools will simply spend the extra on pay and benefits for themselves, which is what they always do.