Local education officials breathe sigh of relief amid Brown’s budget cuts

Some local education officials appeared to be breathing a sigh of relief about the depth of mid-year cuts to public education funding following Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget update Tuesday, even as their counterparts in Los Angeles Unified prepare to sue over the loss of transportation dollars.

The K-12 system, which is financed based on average daily attendance numbers, will lose about $13 per student according to the terms of Brown’s announcement, Burbank Unified Supt. Stan Carrizosa said. In Burbank, that totals about $200,000, a significant loss, but far less than the worse-case scenario of $2 million.

“We will continue with our mutli-year budget solvency plan which includes a combination of budget cuts and spending down our reserves,” Carrizosa said. “The recent concessions negotiated with our employees will help our deficit from increasing by covering fixed cost increases, but we still have to worry about our annual structural deficit of $4.5 million and any further state cuts in July that would add to that.”

In total, California’s K-12 schools will be forced to absorb $328 million of the $1 billion in state-wide cuts. Of that, $248 million will be in the form of bus transportation dollars. Los Angeles Unified officials have already announced they would sued the state for the lost transportation funds.

“It’s a sad day for California,” State Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said of the mid-year cuts. “Taking hundreds of millions of dollars from our schools, on top of the $18 billion in cuts they have already suffered, will only make life harder for students in California’s chronically underfunded schools.”