Let’s come together in November 2012 to restore education funding
It’s time now to unite for next November.
Yes, November 2012. It may seem like a long way off, but it’s not. In just a year, our state will have a potential opportunity our children can’t afford for us to miss.
That’s when millions of Californians will go to the polls, where they could have a chance to do what our legislators have so far been unable to do: reverse the chronic underfunding of our public schools.
So far, several well-regarded organizations have been exploring potential ballot measures. Some deal exclusively with education funding, some with broader tax increases or school reforms, and some with larger state budget reforms.
California State PTA is calling for a united effort to qualify and pass a state ballot measure that focuses – first and foremost – on restoring funding for educational programs that have been cut or eliminated.
Along with other groups, we’re raising awareness about the importance of this effort, and urging state leaders, organizations, businesses, and individuals to come together around a plan that meets the needs of students.
In our most recent annual survey, PTA members and leaders from throughout the state singled out adequate state funding for education as a resounding priority: 89.2 percent said it is extremely important; 98.6 percent said it was important or extremely important.
No other issue came close to this level of support.
In addition, our survey showed that parents are most interested in making sure students have access to a full range of programs and services. In response to a list of nine specific education topics, the five top-rated responses were:
- Access to a full curriculum that includes the arts for every student;
- Smaller class sizes;
- More science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM);
- Strengthening teacher and administrator effectiveness; and
- Reducing the dropout rate.
In another section of the survey, access to physical education also rated extremely high with parents.
Parents and family members know that what matters most is what happens on the ground in our schools and in our children’s classrooms each day. While talk in Sacramento and Washington, D.C., often centers on the reform of the week, our members have spoken loudly and clearly: Schools need adequate funding so that every child has access to a complete educational program that includes physical education, arts, and STEM (science technology, engineering, and math), as well as counselors, libraries, and smaller class sizes. We think other systemic reforms to the education system that frequently are discussed in Sacramento are important as well, but they may be better addressed through legislation, instead of a ballot measure.
In PTA we’re passionate, but we’re also realistic. We understand it typically takes a lot of money to qualify a statewide ballot initiative, especially in this polarized political climate. But that doesn’t mean we won’t put all of our energy toward working with others to try. While we are not an organization that can write a big check to get a measure on the ballot, we have something even more valuable: our members.
Together we are nearly 1 million parents, educators, grandparents, aunts, uncles, students, and others who care deeply about the damage inflicted by year after year of budget cuts. We will fight for every child, and we can help to create the broad public support and true grassroots engagement that will be needed to work with others and help qualify and pass a ballot measure.
Of course, any successful ballot measure must include new revenues. But we know that public education is our collective responsibility and that we must all step up to restore its promise.
Passing a measure won’t be easy, but we think the majority of Californians are up for the challenge.
Now, more than ever, we must act to secure the financing for public schools that will allow us to fulfill our promise of providing a quality education for all students. We look forward to forging a united effort focused on this goal. Please visit our website to find out how you can help and keep up to date on our progress.
Carol Kocivar of San Francisco is president of the California State PTA. She has served as president-elect, vice president for communications, an education commission member, and on numerous committees with the California State PTA. A past president of the San Francisco Second District PTA, Kocivar has worked as a journalist, attorney, and ombudsperson for special education. The California State PTA has nearly 1 million members throughout the state volunteering on behalf of public schools, children, and families, with the motto “Every child, one voice.” The PTA also advocates at national, state, and local levels for education and family issues.
I’m not sure the call for more public education funding (through tax increases) will carry the day with California voters; it certainly didn’t in Colorado just last Tuesday (when such a move went down two-to-one … a resounding thumping in electoral terms). From a purely political perspective, the call for more funding won’t resonate with voters.
So any hope of raising revenues for education will absolutely need to be connected to substantive reforms. And, in fact, the narrowing of curriculum isn’t a matter of lower budgets; it’s policy driven. High school dropouts and administrative efficiency/effectiveness are, likewise, more policy driven than fiscal.
Therefore a fixation on more money may not be a sufficient remedy for our kids, anyway. In California’s K-12 system, the only programs and curricula that are valued are those that are required, measured and adequately funded. So money concerns only address one-third of the policy “drivers”.
For the education establishment to be successful in a November 12 ballot initiative, the leaders of the well-financed interest groups need to have a clear-eyed perspective about voter sentiment in this horrible economy, as well as an attentive finger on the pulse of their frustration with the current K-12 shortcomings (and those polices that have led to the disappointing outputs).
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I agree with Fred. Voters won’t approve anything if it’s not connected to significant reforms. With that said, whether or not you have reforms, a tax increase is a terrible idea. Carol, instead of taking even more money from taxpayers and crushing the economy even further, why not make some significant reforms to our $500 billion black hole called public pensions – the voters would pass it in a flash, especially if savings had to be passed on to education? Or is it simply that PTA refuses to take any positions contrary to the unions?
You also made no effort explain why youre only focusing on funding and ignoring critical reforms. Your survey demonstrates that teacher effectiveness is important to parents. Why not support tenure and seniority reform on the ballot as well? You said the reform side should be done legislatively but without justification. Why? It leads one to believe you don’t actually want reform since the legislature has proven it will never pass any significant changes but the people of California very likely would.
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I am puzzled by statements from the PTA Chairman. The PTA has been around for decades. How come if you are so concerned about the kids and so willing to fight for their quality education, haven’t you done so sooner? The PTA has endorsed every Out-of-the-box social engineering gimmick proposed by community organizations and monied foundations, but, according to your claims here, none of it has helped the children.
Also what makes you think a child’s education is a collective community goal? Is education for the individual only some means of measuring how well society thrives from the services performed by the well-trained and socially manipulated student?
If schools are so underfunded why would proponents of charter schools want their funding levels to be the same as regular public schools? But, if Charter Schools are merely re-formed public schools where will the extra money come from to support these schools? Will they be owned, in part, by community organizations with special interests?
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This is exactly the right conversation. The issue of the year for California education is going to be how to craft just the right Grand Bargain: Reform for Revenue.
There is no question: California education funding is WAY below national norms. It isn’t a small gap. Lack of money for education is part of the problem in this state. There is no such thing as good timing for raising revenue, but the timing for a Grand Bargain is now. If the ballot measure doesn’t embrace this trade-off, change seems unlikely.
The good news is that a plan already exists: the “Students First” plan from the Governor’s Committee on Education Excellence balances reform and revenue. The even better news is that organizations seem to be learning to tolerate their differences in the interest of getting to a plan that can win for 2012. The movement is taking signups here: http://www.childrennow.org/index.php/act/join_the_movement
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Sorry, folks. To suggest that the state of CA, now recognized as being in the bottom five of 50 states in funding per student does not have a significant education underfunding problem is nothing less than silly.
According to a RAND study CA fell below the national average in school funding in 1985 and has sunk ever lower ever since.
We now fund our schools at the same level as most of those in the southeastern quadrant, which is to say at the level of an undeveloped country.
And, some people may be surprised at what the people of CA really think about increased taxes. They appear to have noticed that the Bush tax cuts, leaning heavily towards the wealthy and in place for a decade, haven’t done much for the economy or unemployment.
Also, let’s be clear, the “reform” strategies commonly discussed have no basis in research, improved achievement for the majority of students, or reality. They are “reforminess.”
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I agree. Let’s restore decent education funding for California’s children. An initiative on the November 2012 ballot is a good place to do that. Another way to help schools is to elect, volunteer for, and donate to the campaigns of representatives to Sacramento who will take a balanced budgetary approach by not only reducing spending, and but also by raising revenue so that education funding is not slashed. With per pupil funding in our state already among the lowest in the nation, an all cuts and no new revenue budget is hurting our students and our state’s future. Ask yourself, which party’s legislators take a balanced approach and which party’s legislators block any new revenue for schools or anything else? Let’s come together for a sensible initiative to help our students, and let’s also elect representatives who will do that in the budget process.
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I am not as politically astute as those that have commented before me herein. I won’t even fool myself thinking I have a solution to this problem. Although I do comment on where I’d like to see changes I also share here some peculiarities in the priorities of how instructional time has been spent. I do agree that proper funding is critical and cannot be excluded from the equation (keep in mind what it takes to attract quality instruction in our high cost of living state). It would be foolish to put all eggs in one basket and make this the only direction of the PTA’s effort to improve our public education. Our family’s worst year in elementary school was when our child had a worn out teacher who no longer had good classroom management skills. Our 7 year old at the time reported that the teacher was “always angry”. It was his most challenging year to date. This is what we get when jobs are protected by tenure and teachers are not held accountable as in full civilian jobs where salaries and keeping your job are based on merit and not longevity . This is the first critical change outside of obtaining additional funding I would highly support. This particular teacher should have long ago retired but was hanging in for the money and benefits. It took 2 weeks for me to get a reply to my email from this teacher when I had questions about my child’s report card and that reply merely stated she would have to look at my questions and get back to me. Totally irresponsible. And to think as a tax payer I pay her salary. Regarding taxes, when we had no children my husband and I always gave every school district ballot measure our financial support. Times are different now and most families are barely making ends meet and they have to vote with their personal plight in mind. Families are getting more savvy and know that what goes to Sacramento may never make it into their child’s school to where it makes a difference once the pie is sliced up. So what else can we do on a global level? For those that are not job seekers I would hope the schools work on making volunteer opportunities more attractive to parents donating time and thus helping where money is tight.. For those that have jobs and skills in the careers of the future, I think it is vital that these adults donate time in the classrooms to inspire our children and provide them and their families further resources for learning outside of the classroom. A ballot measure that rewards businesses who allocate employee time to very specific types of in-class instruction is something I would fully support despite my generally not favoring further tax cuts for wealthy corporations. I believe children should be raised with exposure to a variety of interests beyond strict academics so they will have an opportunity to become well rounded, empathetic and thinking adults and leaders. I very much miss my child not getting much art and almost no music exposure as part of his elementary school curriculum. PE classes were also very limited until the latter elementary years. This is a fact of life when priorities have to be made to stretch the dollar. Families can take it upon themselves to expose their children to art, music, and sports in ways that do not necessarily impact the family budget. School library hours are being cut, which means families need to add to their already full plates trips to the library; thank goodness for accessing libraries through the internet. Where should the cuts be made? I think we need to look for waste at the district level and the focus should be on bringing equal education to all children at all schools with more specific standards and curriculum. I think instruction should first focus on core skills of the future and where possible, integrate the math and science instruction into art and music. We are in a high achieving district. So why was instructional time dedicated in Kindergarten to teaching sign language when Spanish would have been more useful? Why are they teaching cursive in 3rd grade and dropping it thereafter when come middle school all the work will be typed? Why do some of the elementary schools have a robust GATE program and others almost none when all our district’s schools are high achieving? What a waste of the resources. On the flip side we have high school seniors with 4.7 GPAs that can’t get into top schools like Stanford and UC Berkeley because they lack the foundation for leadership having focused solely on academics. Is anyone overseeing this?
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Word as of yesterday to school districts is to expect not only the 4% mid-year cut, which is going to hit hard, but to build district projections assuming that 4% is permanent going forward. That is going to be devastating, in a situation that is already somewhere past devastating.
On top of that, state deferrals to districts are only getting larger. (This is the situation where the state has promised to pay money for this year sometime next year, and has been doing so for several years running.) In my local district, these deferrals are at about 20% of the entire annual budget. People wonder why districts have reserves in their budgets while making dramatic cuts that hurt kids? This is why… because otherwise they won’t have the cash to meet payroll.
Every year of this financial crisis is doing permanent damage to our schools that will be even more expensive to undo. Every class of kids who is touched by these budgetary issues will be our taxpaying citizen base for 40 years. We are eating our seed corn.
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Amend Prop 13!
Amend proposition 13 by utilizing a split-roll via a ballot initiative.
Tax Corporate Property Fairly in California while Protecting Homeowners. Generate 7.5 Billion Annually to fund Education, Infrastructure, and Vital Social Services.
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Dear Ms. Kocivar:
I concur with your views that we must do a better job of funding public education in California. I consider myself somewhat biased because I have been a teacher for 43 years in four countries and five states of the U.S.; I’ve also served in the Peace Corps and the U.S. Army. I believe, however, in spite of being a teacher and having strong views on public education, health care and other human services, that I’m an informed and responsible citizen. The shift of wealth from the middle and working classes to the richest two percent has made our country an oligarchy, and nowhere in the world, in my view, do the super-rich pay an equitable share of taxes to fund human services.
I suggest that responsible and patriotic residents of California support the Oil Extraction Tax Initiative To Fund Public Education and the initiative that is currently being formulated to increase taxes on the very rich and to implement other tax reform measures that would democratize the tax structure in this state. I also encourage people to support Single Payer Now and the Campaign For New Priorities. A great nation must have an efficient and egalitarian public educational system and a health care system that serves the needs of our people. Political democracy and economic democracy are inseparable, and we can have no greater resource than educated, healthy citizens.
Sincerely,
Rodger Scott
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I really can’t believe you would advocate cutting someone’s pension!!! What kind of person are you? You are suggesting that to save money, some elderly man or woman would suddenly find him or herself without an income? How are they supposed to live? Do you ever think about the consequences of some of the things you slash and burn types advocate for?
How about closing corporate loopholes? How about making banks and corporations actually pay taxes? Forget raising their taxes, they simply don’t pay any, and they get refunds on top of that! How about taxing so-called “religious” organizations that are just fronts for hate groups (and please don’t twist that to mean I am talking about ALL religious organizations, but those like Focus on the Family, Family Research Council, etc). How about ending farm subsidies which pay farmers NOT to grow on their land? How about a financial transaction tax that makes Wall Street investors pay when they conduct a financial transaction? It would make them more responsible and stabilize our economy. How about asking the banks to pay back the billions in bailout dollars we gave them, which they loaned back to us and are now charging interest?
Of all the ways that we could possibly fund education in a way that would suggest that we CARE about education in this country, you, and people like you, suggest throwing a bunch of old people out in the street with nothing to eat, no healthcare and no money to pay their bills!
Wow! And I bet you are a Christian as well.
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You might want to know that one of the top experts in music education in our country said that California is known for being in last place. He said that a music teacher would be better off “in any other state” than in CA. This comment was made in 2009. Music teachers from other states ask, “How does California get away with” having non-credentialed people teaching (elementary) music? So even if the funding is improved, that doesn’t mean that districts will employ professionals to teach in their “Blue Ribbon” and “Distinguished” schools – unless/until they are required to. Children reap the consequences.
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