The California Department of Education announced a large increase of school districts that may not be able to meet future financial obligations without drastically reducing spending due to the budget crisis.
“Billions of dollars of state budget cuts to education have left school districts with deficits that local school boards and administrators are attempting to address,” said Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. “The decisions they have been forced to make are heartbreaking: increasing class size, laying off teachers and classified staff; eliminating summer school, canceling arts, music and sports. These are choices no educator in California wants to make. But the alternative is bankruptcy and entering state receivership.”
The state’s early warning system is designed to alert districts in danger of failing to meet their financial obligations. Interim financial reports on the fiscal health of school districts and county offices of education are prepared semi-annually.
The certifications are classified as positive, qualified or negative. A positive certification is assigned when the district will meet its financial obligations for the current and two subsequent fiscal years. A qualified certification is assigned when the district may not meet its financial obligations for the current or two subsequent fiscal years. A negative certification is assigned when a district will be unable to meet its financial obligations for the remainder of the current year or for the subsequent fiscal year.
“Because of the sharp downturn in our economy and deep cuts to education, we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of districts that are on the negative or qualified certification list,” O’Connell said. “Unfortunately, the cuts to public education that are part of the state budget are likely to result in even more districts being added to this list.”
Just two years ago, there were only five districts on the negative certification list and 19 on the qualified list. Now there are 19 districts on the negative certification list and 89 districts with a qualified certification status.
Even with this increase, it should be noted that O’Connell returned full local control to Oakland USD last week, following nearly six years under various forms of state control.
The national and state economic crisis has led to a gaping $24.3 billion deficit in California’s state budget. This has led to the governor and Legislature proposing to cut K-12 public education by another $5.5 billion. Last week the Legislature also approved a plan to defer millions more in payments due to schools in 2009-10. These cuts and deferrals are staggering when placed in addition to the nearly $12 billion in cuts approved in February.
O’Connell renewed his call to give educators the ability to raise funds locally by urging the governor and Legislature to approve SCA 6, Simitian, D-Palo Alto. This measure would allow an approval threshold for parcel taxes of 55 percent, as it is with bond elections.
“The time has never been more right than now to take a long, hard look at the way we fund education, because our system is broken and because our children deserve better than this,” O’Connell said.