School Leaders Agree Budget Is Painful but Fair : Education: Honig calls the state spending plan a reasonable compromise given the scarcity of money.

The spending plan that has won approval from Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature will be painful for California’s public schools and colleges but is probably the best that could be expected considering the scarcity of state funds, school leaders said Friday.

“Given the circumstances, this is a reasonable compromise,” said State Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig. “It’s tough, it’s going to hurt but it’s not unfair.”

“There’s a lot of pain for us in the budget but the state is in a lot of pain, too,” said William B. Baker, vice president for budget and university relations at the University of California.

Chancellor David Mertes of the statewide community college system agreed. “Given the situation the state is in, we are being treated very fairly by the governor and the Legislature,” he said.

But a dissenting opinion came from Jackie Goldberg, president of the Los Angeles school board, which already has pared almost $231 million from next year’s $4-billion budget and must still cut at least another $10 million.

“With this budget, we’re starting to dismantle the school system,” Goldberg said. “We’ll be flushing it down the toilet if this continues.”

The spending plan approved by the Assembly on Thursday includes about $822 million more for public schools and community colleges than Wilson first proposed.

When the governor revised the budget in May, he added about $422 million for public schools by abandoning a funding formula based on school attendance he had hoped to introduce, and by restoring money for mentor teachers and a limited plan to reduce some class sizes. He also restored cuts that had been made in school desegregation funding and in financial incentives for schools that shift to year-round calendars.

The schools will benefit by another $400 million because they will not be required to collect property taxes for the counties and will not have to make payments into employee pension funds for a year.

However, this still will leave the schools about $1.3 billion short of what they need to accommodate inflation and next year’s expected enrollment growth, Honig said.

About $800 million of that deficit can be made up by freezing all salaries in school districts that do not have ongoing labor contracts, he said. The remaining $500 million must come from layoffs and cutting programs.

Across the state, districts are planning to increase class size, dismiss counselors, librarians, nurses and other non-teaching personnel and cut into sports and other activities not considered essential.

In Los Angeles, $55.8 million has been trimmed from central administration costs and $18.9 million will be saved by freezing salary step advancements for employees with fewer than 10 years experience. Additionally, $21.3 million will come from increasing class sizes--already among the highest in the nation--by three students in grades nine through 12.

The San Diego schools have made $37 million in cuts, including elimination of 163 central administration positions.

In Montebello, one of the most financially hard-pressed districts in the state, the pupil-teacher ratio will increase to 42 to 1 in senior high schools and 39 to 1 in middle schools.

The community colleges will receive less money from the state next year than they received this year, even though enrollment will increase.

“We will simply not be able to offer any classes for all the students who will be coming to us,” Chancellor Mertes said. “We are struggling with our ability to handle the enrollment pressure.”

The pressure will be greater, Mertes predicted, because both the University of California and the California State University system are increasing their student fees substantially, a move that is likely to divert many freshmen and sophomores to community colleges.

Ellis McCune, acting chancellor of the California State University system, said $187 million will be cut from the $1.7-billion budget for the 20-campuses.

Faculty and staff members will be laid off, McCune said, especially at older, developed campuses such as San Diego, San Francisco, Northridge and San Jose.

Because there will be fewer faculty “there will be fewer classes,” he said, “and our students will have a more difficult time filling out their programs.”

UC’s Baker said the nine-campus system already has cut its $2.2-billion budget for next year by $295 million and must make an additional $12.5 million in reductions.

So far, Baker said, student fees have been increased by 40%, bringing in $91 million. About 1,700 faculty and staff members have been laid off or have retired, for a savings of $75 million. Enrollment will be reduced by 5,500 over a period of five years, to save another $35 million.