Senate Backs Compromise Giving Schools $71 Million

The Senate overwhelmingly approved on Monday compromise legislation to immediately restore $71.5 million that Gov. George Deukmejian vetoed last year in additional aid for public schools and community colleges.

The measure, which Deukmejian is expected to sign, appears to put to rest a nearly yearlong controversy over financing certain programs from kindergarten through 12th grade and for community colleges that have suffered reductions in students.

The bill, by Assemblywoman Teresa P. Hughes (D-Los Angeles), won 34-1 approval and was returned to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments. The governor may receive the measure by week’s end.

The bill would take effect for the remaining month of the current fiscal year and is unrelated to the dispute between Deukmejian and state school Supt. Bill Honig over whether to rebate $700 million to taxpayers next year or spend the money on education.

For the Los Angeles Unified School District, the measure would provide $18.8 million, while Los Angeles community colleges would get $7.8 million, a staff adviser to Hughes said.

Last summer, Deukmejian vetoed $141 million from the budget in programs for economically disadvantaged students in big-city school districts, for busing students in sparsely populated rural districts and for community colleges, such as those in Los Angeles, whose enrollments have declined in recent years. He subsequently agreed to restore half of the vetoed funds--enough to finance the programs during the fall term.

He said he would sign legislation to restore the other half for the current school term, provided the money comes from surpluses in the public employee pension programs. Under heavy pressure from state employee unions and retired workers, Senate Democrats refused to go along.

Earlier this year, the Legislature sent Deukmejian a $76-million proposal to restore the vetoed funds for the current school terms, which he vetoed, charging that it failed to specify where the money would come from to finance it. The Senate failed to override the veto.

The proposal by Hughes represented what virtually everyone agreed was a compromise as local school districts, faced with laying off teachers and others for lack of funds, struggled to keep themselves afloat.

The bill would be financed from a variety of sources, including the state’s general fund, tidelands oil revenues and by reducing certain future contributions of school districts to employee pension programs.