As lawmakers look to a record-setting budget to turn around a series of setbacks for the California public education system, proponents of a new school choice ballot initiative believe it’s better to let the money follow the student to a school best suited to the individual.
The budget proposal unveiled in January by Gov. Gavin Newsom allocates roughly $102 billion for Transitional Kindergarten (TK) through grade 12 and community college education, an increase of roughly 8.5 percent above last year.
But questions persist whether greater financial allocations can fix an entrenched system that has ranked California schools in the bottom 20 percent in one recent study, and appeared at times to quit on students as teacher union demands delayed returning to in-person learning much longer than many parents felt was reasonable.
The California School Choice ballot initiative, which would create the Educational Freedom Act, is designed to empower parents to have an impact on the educational, moral, and intellectual formation of their child, Mike Alexander, chair of the California School Choice Initiative, told the Northern California Record.
He emphasized the idea is not to end public education or government’s role in education.
“The most important thing is that this will introduce competition into the system,” Alexander said. “Right now, government owned and operated schools are locked in conflict with parents – and parents find themselves being ignored and overlooked, and in battle with these bureaucracies. Once we introduce competition, these entities are going to have to become more responsive to parents or lose population.”
State figures show school enrollment has declined by 160,000 students, CalMatters reported.
Key features of the Educational Freedom Act would be a $14,000 education savings account, funded by the state, to all students no matter the zipcode on request of a parent. The initiative proponents are working to collect more signatures over the next several weeks. If they gather enough verified signatures, the measure will be on the ballot in November.
Alexander noted the support for the initiative is nonpartisan.
“Obviously you will find certain political groups – teacher unions, government employee unions – who are vehemently opposed, but when you're talking with parents, we rarely encounter any opposition,” Alexander said. “They're just happy to know that there's the opportunity out there.”
Alexander noted the state school system drop in enrollment is due to a number of reasons, including truancy, complications with remote learning, and difference of opinion about course offerings, including Critical Race Theory (CRT).
“There has been controversial course content, continuing culture wars going on between school boards and parents about social and moral content of certain courses,” Alexander said. “But we cannot rule out the fact that, just like any business, when you shut down you lose customers.”
Meanwhile, a new Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies poll shows Californians’ view of their local public schools have sharply declined in the last decade.
But lawmakers are working to ensure the record budget provides California children the education they deserve, state Sen. Anthony Portantino, D-La Cañada, said in an email response to the Northern California Record.
Portantino is sponsor of SB 830, which seeks to address how education funding is allocated in California.
“California is one of six states that does not consider enrollment figures for determining state aid to school districts,” Portantino said. “Districts plan their budgets and expend funds based on enrollment but receive funds based on attendance. For example, if a school district enrolls 100 students but their attendance rate is 95%, the school district must still prepare as if 100 students will attend class every day. ADA (Average Daily Attendance) is only used by California and five other states (Idaho, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri and Texas) and is perhaps the most inequitable method used to fund public education.
“SB 830 would define ‘average daily membership’ as the quotient of the aggregate enrollment days for all pupils in a school district or county office of education, from transitional kindergarten to grade 12, divided by the total number of instructional days for the local educational agency (LEA) in an academic year.”
Starting with the 2023-24 fiscal year, each fiscal year a LEA may report to the Superintendent for Public Instruction (SPI) for supplemental education funding.
“SB 830 would require a LEA to receive as supplemental education funding the difference between what it would have received under the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) based on average daily membership, and what it would have received under the LCFF based on average daily attendance for that fiscal year,” Portantino said. “In order for a LEA to be eligible for supplemental educational funding, SB 830 would require they report to the SPI on July 1 the average daily membership for the prior academic year and to demonstrate a maintenance of effort to address chronic absenteeism and habitual truancy. SB 830 would require LEAs to use at least 50% of their supplemental education funding to supplement existing LEA expenditures to address chronic absenteeism.”
Portantino said that like most public school parents and supporters, he’s very concerned about the decline in public school enrollment.
“It’s one of the reasons behind why I introduced SB 830,” Portantino said. “Our schools and our students need our commitment to the institution and the young people who attend them – now more than ever.”
Many things are needed to help children learn and prosper amid the challenges of the pandemic, Portantino said.
“A safe and nurturing learning environment, well-trained and supported teachers and a commitment from policy makers to create a stable and strong public school system,” Portantino said. “And the entire system needs the resources to meet the everyday challenges and responsibilities to serve the best interests of students.”
SB 830 has been referred to the Senate Committee on Education.