Deukmejian Hints at Cuts in Special Education Funds

Gov. George Deukmejian said Wednesday that he wants a “thorough review” of special school programs, such as bilingual education, hinting that some might have to be cut before he will agree to a plan in the Legislature to commit more money to relieve school overcrowding.

“Conditions change,” Deukmejian told reporters in Orange County after taping a public affairs television program. Citing a rapidly approaching constitutional limit on state government spending, he said some programs might have to be cut to finance increases in others. “We now have to face a reality that we have a spending limitation,” he said.

The comments reflected increasing concern on the governor’s part about the spending limit. He also cited the limit in comments renewing opposition to a possible gasoline tax hike to finance highway construction and in statements indicating that the state may not provide money to protect programs hit by the federal budget-deficit reduction plan.

Deukmejian, commenting for the first time on school reform legislation sponsored by Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara) and Sen. Marian Bergeson (R-Newport Beach) that would earmark $60 million annually to relieve school overcrowding, said he might support the legislation.

But, bringing up longstanding criticism of specially mandated education programs, Deukmejian said he wants a wholesale review of them. He said some might have to be cut in order to provide additional financing to relieve school overcrowding and at the same time stay within the rapidly approaching spending limit.

Deukmejian estimates that his newly proposed $36.7-billion budget for the next fiscal year would leave the state only $100 million below the so-called Gann limit, named after tax crusader Paul Gann, who drafted the ballot initiative in 1979 that put the spending limitation into the state Constitution.

But the problem might be worse. A recent review of the budget by the Legislature’s nonpartisan analyst, William G. Hamm, indicated that the spending plan might be $238 million over the limit.

While continuing to support the Department of Finance estimate he used in preparing his budget, Deukmejian nevertheless indicated that he is concerned about the limit.

“I think it’s an appropriate time for us to review the whole (education) financing picture,” Deukmejian told reporters after taping a half-hour interview at Orange County’s public television station, KOCE, Channel 50.

Deukmejian would not be specific about which programs might be cut. But among the general group he referred to are some of the state’s most popular programs, including bilingual education, and special programs for slow readers, the handicapped, the mentally gifted and others.

In a general criticism, the governor said, “I’m not sure that all of the total education dollars are being spent as wisely as they should be.”

Any proposed cuts would have to be approved by the Democrat-controlled Legislature, which in the past has resisted efforts by Deukmejian to cut special education programs.

Deukmejian also cited the so-called Gann limit a day earlier in expressing continued opposition to a gasoline tax increase.

The governor said in a speech Tuesday in Palm Springs to the California Broadcasters Assn. that even if there were to be a tax increase, the money could not be spent because of the spending limit.

The Republican chief executive, during the television interview, also cited the spending limit in saying that the state might not provide financing to shore up health, welfare and other programs facing cuts under federal budget-deficit reduction legislation.