May Revise Budget Proposal for K-12 Education
and Charter Schools May 14, 2003

The May Revision to the Governor's Budget was released today, showing a small amount of good news overall for education and proposing a significant reversal from the proposed across-the-board cuts to K-12 education in his January budget. The current budget proposal lowers the cut to revenue limit funding from $612 million to $350 million, representing only a 1.2 percent reduction compared to a 2.15 percent proposed reduction in January. The May Revision also reduces or eliminates specific categorical funding programs. There appears to be no funding cuts that specifically target charter schools.

The May Revision increases overall K-12 education from $54.5 billion in 2002-2003 to $55.5 billion in 2003-2004, a 1.8 percent increase overall.

In the Governor's press conference he stated that his budget has five priorities for K-12 education: continue to include class size reduction, special education, the state's accountability program, child nutrition, and school safety.

The Governor is proposing to cover the overall budget gap of $38.2 billion through $18.9 million in spending cuts and savings; raising new taxes on tobacco, consumer products and the wealthy; by enacting a vehicle license fee increase; while also borrowing more than $10 billion to finance part of the state deficit.

We are pleased to be able to share that in the Governor's May Revision, charter schools face only the same budget reductions as other public schools. However on a very sobering note, we know that members of the education community that continue to oppose charter schools tried to get significant and disproportionate funding cuts made to charter schools, cuts that the administration did not include in its May Revise. The charter school community must remain very vigilant during this budget process.

Unlike virtually any other year, there is intense external pressure to pass a budget by July 1. This means that the budget review process must now move very quickly. We anticipate non-stop activity over the next two weeks as the budget subcommittees and staff work through thousands of issues. This means that it is entirely possible that CANEC will need to call on you with virtually no notice in the near future for letters and phone calls. Should charter schools be faced with the possibility of disproportionate funding cuts, we will immediately need your help in making our representatives aware that the charter community is following their actions.

Over the next six weeks please check your e-mail DAILY for listserv announcements and check the CANEC website (http://www.canec.org/articles.html) for budget updates. We are actively following all phases of budget negotiations but much of the work takes place behind closed doors and at all hours of the day and night. Again, it is entirely possible that CANEC will need to call on you with virtually no notice in the near future for letters and phone calls. We promise to give you the greatest notice possible should we hear of any new threats to charter schools' funding. Additionally, we will provide you with routine updates on budget issues as actions occur.

For more on the budget, call the CANEC office at (916) 448-0995.

Helen Wallquist
Advocacy Coordinator, CANEC
916-798-0965
wallquist@canec.org

• Most recent update: May 23, 2003

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