State’s Per-Pupil Spending Would Decline Under Deukmejian’s Budget

Despite Proposition 98, the voter-approved measure that guarantees a minimum funding level for the state’s elementary and secondary schools, spending per pupil would decline slightly next year in the budget proposed Wednesday by Gov. George Deukmejian.

Per-pupil spending would drop from $3,987 in the current year to $3,968 next year, adjusted for inflation. The main reasons for the drop are twofold--an expected huge enrollment increase of 171,000 students next year and the governor’s decision to trim the cost-of-living increase for elementary and secondary schools to 3%, instead of the 4.95% called for by law.

“It’s going to be a very tight year for some school districts,” State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig said.

One of those is the Los Angeles Unified School District, which faces a $50-million shortfall in its expected 1990-91 revenues if the proposed budget is accepted, said Henry Jones, the district’s budget director.

The 3% cost-of-living proposal is “catastrophic for our district,” said Jackie Goldberg, president of the Los Angeles school board.

Statewide, the 3% recommendation “is more than $350 million short” of the amount required by law for kindergarten through 12th grade, said Ed Foglia, president of the California Teachers Assn.

“The under-funding could jeopardize the stability and quality of the reading, writing, math and other instructional programs that our children desperately need,” he said.

Under Deukmejian’s proposal, elementary and secondary schools would receive a total of $17.8 billion in state revenues, an increase of 8% over the current year.

California’s 107 community colleges fared better in the proposed budget, receiving a cost-of-living increase of 5.2%.

Overall state spending for community colleges would rise to $1.8 billion, an increase of 7.6% over this year.

“Given the state of the economy and the parameters within which the governor had to work, we believe that the distribution of funds is fair to the community colleges,” said Community College Chancellor David Mertes.

But University of California and California State University officials were less happy.

The governor proposed state support of $2.7 billion for UC, an increase of 5.1% over current-year spending. For the Cal State system, the budget proposes funding of $2.1 billion, also a 5.1% increase.

UC President David P. Gardener called the governor’s proposal “clearly inadequate” and said he hoped for improvement in the state’s final spending plan if a proposed constitutional amendment raising state spending limits is approved by voters in June.

Cal State Chancellor W. Ann Reynolds said the governor’s plan will mean “a very lean budget year” for the 20 campuses in her system. She, too, held out hope for improvement if the constitutional amendment is approved.

Deukmejian also recommended a 4.8% salary increase for UC faculty members and a 4.9% hike for Cal State professors.

And he proposed that UC student fees be increased by 4.7%, to an average of $1,703, while Cal State student fees would be raised by 4.8%, bringing them to an average of $744.

The Deukmejian budget begins to address the problem of a $6-billion backlog in unfunded school construction plans by urging voter passage of an $800-million bond issue in June and another $800-million issue next November.

The budget also proposes that the state Board of Education spend $250,000 to study possible reorganization of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Assemblywoman Marian W. La Follette (R-Northridge) and others have proposed in the past that the sprawling Los Angeles district be divided into several smaller units, but their efforts have gone nowhere. Now the governor has joined the crusade.

California’s private colleges also received some bad budget news. The state-funded scholarships known as Cal Grants, which can be used at those schools, would not be raised above the current $5,250 a year per student. Private schools had lobbied for an increase to $5,850, and an eventual cap of $7,500 on grounds that larger Cal Grants would allow more students to attend private institutions, thereby relieving overcrowding at public colleges and universities.