CALmatters Commentary: How will California schools spend gusher of cash?
Dan Walters: CALmatters Commentary
During Gov. Gavin Newsom’s 90-minute, superlative-saturated monologue on the virtues of his revised 2021-22 budget this month, he boasted of an historic high in public school spending.
State aid and local property taxes would push per-pupil spending to $14,000, he said, and with federal funds, it would top $20,000 for the first time. Moreover, Newsom’s budget would advance his long-sought goal of offering universal pre-kindergarten programs, and a new notion of making schools centers for community services.
The massive injection of money into schools raises a pungent question: How will they spend it?
May 19, 2021
EdSource asked education leaders, advocates and observers to comment on Gov. Newsom’s record-level, revised 2021-22 budget for K-12 education. We wanted to know what they thought would most advance students’ recovery from the impact of the pandemic and what they felt was missing.
Scroll down and click on the photos to read their thought-provoking responses on the governor’s plans. And also see reactions to the governor’s early education and higher education budget plans.
Debi Bober
Teacher, Cubberley K-8 School, Long Beach
What among the governor’s proposals will most advance students’ recovery from the pandemic and why?
With eye-popping state revenues feeding an ambitious agenda, Gov. Gavin Newsom will announce today multi-year plans for transitional kindergarten for all 4-year-olds, full funding for summer school and after school for 2 million children, hundreds of new service-based community schools and a $2 billion program to set up a $500 college savings account for every low-income child entering public school.
Newsom will also reiterate what he has been recently saying: He expects all school districts and charter schools to revert to full-day, in-person instruction in the fall, as they did before the pandemic. Those districts that fail to provide full-day instruction will not be eligible for student funding, according to administration officials who offered a preview of Newsom’s updated state budget for K-12 schools.
April 26, 2021
Right now, school district and charter school leaders, working with parents and the community, are starting to draft their Local Control and Accountability Plans. State law requires new plans every three years and annual updates to show how they plan to use and have used the funds they receive from the state under the Local Control Funding Formula.
The Covid-19 outbreak a year ago forced districts to move three-year planning to the back burner as district staff scrambled to keep delivering learning opportunities at home. Now planning is back on the front burner and soon will be in plain view of parents, voters, students and staff as the new Local Control and Accountability Plan is developed to show how districts will improve academic achievement, lower suspension rates and absenteeism and other areas of state concern.
Dan Walters: Pandemic has damaged California s school children mtdemocrat.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from mtdemocrat.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.