Competing Bills Could Aid 2 County School Districts

A bill to reallocate money under the $65-million Urban Impact Aid program for school systems with special educational needs was narrowly approved Tuesday by the Assembly Education Committee.

The measure, by Assemblywoman Doris Allen (R-Cypress), now goes to the Ways and Means Committee, where it still must compete with a rival bill by Assemblyman Richard Robinson (D-Garden Grove).

Robinson’s bill, which was approved by the Education Committee April 9, would increase the program by $2.3 million in the next fiscal year to provide new or additional funding to 12 districts without taking money away from school systems already receiving annual allocations under the eight-year-old program.

Reallocate Money

In contrast, Allen proposes to reallocate existing money by updating the complex funding formula, which takes into account concentrations of welfare and transient families, and bilingual and minority students.

Money under the program is currently distributed on the basis of 10-year-old data.

Under Allen’s approach, several school districts in the Los Angeles and San Francisco areas would lose money.

But Garden Grove, Lynwood, Norwalk-La Mirada and Riverside school districts would receive special allocations for the first time, and eight others, including the Santa Ana and San Diego school systems, would receive substantial increases.

Allen said population shifts and the influx of Indochinese refugees are responsible for the changes since the Legislature enacted the program in 1977.

“I say the money should go where the children are now,” Allen said.

At a press conference before the committee meeting, Allen had predicted that Democrats and legislators from the state’s major urban centers would either kill her bill or amend it to resemble Robinson’s.

Instead, however, committee members approved her bill by a 7-3 vote with little discussion.

Under Allen’s bill, which would phase in changes in allocations over a three-year period:

- Garden Grove Unified School District would receive $191,785 in special aid during fiscal 1986 and $622,303 by fiscal 1988.

- Santa Ana, which currently receives around $800,000 annually, would get an increase to $938,374 in 1986 and $1.2 million by 1988--an overall 44.5% increase.

- San Diego, which currently receives around $2.26 million annually, would get $2.64 million in 1986 and $3.47 million in 1988 under the Allen bill--an overall 53.3% increase.