Copyright© 2000 by School Services of California, Inc.

July 7, 2000

Governor Signs State Budget on-Time-Vetoes Almost $100
Million From Community College Budget

Governor Gray Davis signed a new $99.4 billion state budget into law on June 30, 2000 after cutting $1 billion from the Legislature's version of the budget. In his budget signing ceremony, the Governor stated that, "In my State of the State address, I laid down a call to arms on behalf of our schools. This budget answers that call."

Once again, the "call" is for the other segments of public education - community colleges continue to struggle to get the Governor's positive attention. The Governor vetoed almost $100 million from the $586 million in community college budget augmentation requests sent to him by the Legislature.

How did the other public educational system fair compared to community colleges?

K-12 education did very well in this year's budget, with a funding increase of 13.9% per pupil (counting both ongoing and one-time monies). This increase included the allocation of $1.84 billion for the elimination of K-12 deficit.

The University of California's (UC) General Fund budget grows by $486.3 million, a 17.9 percent increase. The California State University (CSU) received a 12.7 percent General Fund increase of $279 million. Compared the above funding increases community colleges received only approximately $497 million, an increase of 9 percent. Keep in mind that the community colleges educate significantly more students than UC and CSU combined, yet on a percentage basis receive far less state support.

What did the Governor like and dislike in the community college budget?

There are some within the community college system who believe that the 2000-01 State Budget is a good budget for the community colleges. On the other hand, there are some who believe based on years of under-funding-and the ability this year of the State to provide significant increases in funding due to the large budget surplus the Governor could have done more.

The Governor's budget provides $493.3 million in ongoing funds and $104.9 million in one-time block grant funds (instructional equipment and scheduled maintenance). The Chancellor's Office estimates that this translates into about 10.3% for the system's share of Proposition 98 revenues. The Legislature's version of the community college budget would have provided approximately a 10.46% share of Proposition 98 revenues. Further, the Chancellor's Office points out that this budget is the best in the system's history-with the increase in ongoing funds being more than $130 million over the previous best year of $360 million.

Summary of Major Augmentations (see Attachment A)

• Cost of living allowance fund at 4.17 percent
  
• Growth fund at 3.5 percent
  
• Partnership for Excellence fund at $155 million
  
• Student Outreach and Access provided an $18.5 million augmentation
  
• Telecommunications and Technology augmented by $16.3 million
  
• EOPS book stipends funded at $5 million
  

Summary of Major Vetoes (see Attachment B for details)

• Equalization not funded ($45 million)
  
• Non-credit not funded ($12.5 million)
  
• High-cost programs not funded ($10 million)
  
• Part-time faculty office hour's augmentation not funded ($5 million)

If the community colleges are going to pursue funding in the future that relate to the above items that were vetoed they must find a better way of "packaging" them in order to receive the support of the Governor. Governor Davis is only interested in supporting programs that can be directly linked to student improvement and accountability. He is not interested in providing money for programs that are intended to cure prior years of poor funding.

--Arnold Bray