Volume 3:: March 2004
Prop 98 explanation helps clarify
message from schools
By Joan Boiko
Palm Springs Unified School District
Those of us who were fortunate enough to be able to attend the “pre-conference” session at the CalSPRA Sacramento Summit came away with a wealth of information on Proposition 98 – what it really is and isn’t and how it works. In chatting with some fellow CalSPRANs after the session, we all agreed the Rick Simpson’s presentation was extremely informative and timely given the state’s current fiscal situation.
For those who really don’t understand how Proposition 98 works (like me prior to this session), here’s what it is in a nutshell – Prop 98 guarantees to education the total amount it received in the prior fiscal year adjusted for increases in the cost of living and increases in enrollment. The per pupil school funding keeping up with the cost of living is referred to as the “Test 2 amount,” and this applies to the statewide, aggregate total of spending from both state and general fund proceeds of taxes and local property taxes. The state General Fund makes up the difference between the Prop 98 total and whatever schools receive in property taxes.
Prop 98 requires that schools receive whichever
General Fund amount is greater: the Test 1 percentage
of the General Fund (about 35 percent) or the General
Fund amount needed to reach the Test 2 total of state
and local funding. The Test 2 amount is almost always
greater than the 1986-87 Test 1 percentage (when Prop
98 was enacted).
Prop 111 permits the Legislature to use an alternative
COLA to calculate the Test 2 minimum funding level of
per capita General Fund revenue growth as the COLA (Test
3). The difference in funding levels using the alternative
Test 3 COLA is about $3.5 billion in the current fiscal
year.
Prop 98 can be suspended under the following conditions: suspension is for a single year, it is explicitly contained in an urgency statute and the urgency statute is not the budget bill. In any year that schools are funded below the Test 2 or Test 1 level, Prop 98 requires that an IOU called a “maintenance factor” be created. The state must eventually restore the school funding base by the full amount of the maintenance factor, and the Legislature must begin restoring it when the growth in revenues exceeds the growth in personal income.
I can’t say all of the ins and outs
of Prop 98 are crystal clear for me, but Rick Simpson
certainly did a fine job of explaining how it works, and
it most definitely does not seem as complicated as it
did prior to the presentation. It was a great addition
to the Summit line-up.
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CDE Briefings offer wide variety
of valuable topics
By Nola Lionberger
Solano County Office of Education
CalSPRA provided a smorgasbord of topics for school public relation attendees to digest from the California Department of Education (CDE) at the CalSPRA Summit in Sacramento on Jan. 22 and 23 at the Embassy Suites overlooking the Sacramento River.
We were treated to CDE speakers discussing the Teacher of the Year Program and a detailed easy-to-remember explanation how Prop. 98 operates to fund education. We appreciated the glass half-full analogy as an easy way to explain Prop. 98 to others. After the presentation, most people were able to explain the presentation to their co-workers back home and answer questions. The information provided about Teacher of the Year gave us a whole picture of the process.
CalSPRA invited two groups of panels, one each day, to discuss topics relevant to our jobs. The CDE panel led by Gavin Payne, Chief Deputy Superintendent, provided overviews of the California’s assessment program (API, HSEE, STAR testing), the latest guidelines on No Child Left Behind, and an up-to-date report on legislation affecting education. The second day started with a Media panel led by Rick Miller, CDE Director of Communications. This panel consisted of representatives from the newspaper, television and radio. They discussed the ever-shifting legislative scene and provided insights on how they find out about and capture stories for their fast-paced everyday reporting. The question and answer periods for both panels were invaluable, providing new perspectives on most topics, and tips on researching information.
It was a great experience to get information straight from the folks in Sacramento. CalSPRA did a wonderful job providing an interesting variety of speakers that sparked interesting discussions during and after sessions.
Next year’s Sacramento Summit is sure to provide the same high quality resources, so if you didn’t make it this year, get your registration in early for 2005.
More information and photos from Sac Summit in the Members-Only Section