Hart, Teacher Groups at Odds Over Prop. 98 Funds

The Democratic chairman of the Senate Education Committee, in basic agreement with Republican Gov. George Deukmejian but on a collision course with teacher unions, said Thursday he wants most of the money schools will receive under Proposition 98 to be spent to reduce classroom overcrowding.

The announcement by Sen. Gary K. Hart of Santa Barbara came as he introduced legislation that would earmark for reducing class size at least half the money that public schools are expected to get this year under Proposition 98, the landmark school funding initiative approved by voters in November.

The president of the California Teachers Assn. immediately denounced the plan as “unfair,” saying the money should be made part of the collective bargaining process and available for teacher salaries.

Ed Foglia, the CTA official, also disputed Hart’s contention that the schools’ Proposition 98 allotment will be $215 million, a figure agreed upon by the legislative analyst’s office and the Department of Finance. Foglia said he believes that schools should receive much more.

He said, “The figure is somewhere between $215 million and $800 million.” The higher figure reflects an estimate made by the California Taxpayers Assn.

Under Proposition 98, public schools and community colleges are guaranteed the same share of the $36-billion state general fund budget that they received in the 1986-87 fiscal year, or about 39%. But there is a dispute over exactly how much that should be because 1986-87 was the year the state had a $1.1-billion surplus. Some argue that the surplus should be counted as part of the budget, while others say it should not be counted.

Hart, in outlining his proposal, said it would allow the hiring of an additional 2,000 teachers in California. Since the state has 1,025 school districts and 7,125 individual public schools, the proposal would mean only one in about every three schools would get a new teacher.

The lawmaker conceded that his proposal “is not going to have a major impact in reducing class size,” but, he said, “it’s a start.”

California, which has 23 students for each teacher, ranks last or near last among states in its student-teacher ratio, according to statistics compiled by the National Education Assn. The national average is 18 students per teacher. Hart said the goal is to reduce California’s ratio to 20 students per teacher.

Under Hart’s bill, elementary and high schools would receive $187 million and community colleges would get $28 million.

While Hart and Deukmejian believe that the top priority for the Proposition 98 money should be to relieve overcrowding, they differ on one key point: Deukmejian would like to see all the Proposition 98 money going to reduce class size. Hart said he believes that a compromise can be worked out.

But his position puts him on a collision course with teacher unions. Hart said he does not want to put the money for class-size reduction into the collective bargaining pool, where much of it might go to teachers’ salaries.

District Discretion

Hart said he was agreeable to letting local school districts decide how to spend the other half of the Proposition 98 money, which could be divided up to pay for such things as new textbooks and teaching materials, teacher salaries and other expenses.

Ed Foglia, president of the California Teachers Assn., an umbrella organization for local teacher unions, called Hart’s position “unfair” and promised to fight him.

While saying he and other teachers also believe in reducing class size, Foglia said you can not separate reducing class size from salaries. “If you don’t pay enough in salary, you aren’t going to attract top quality new teachers. To say this money isn’t part of collective bargaining is totally unrealistic,” Foglia said.