State May Be Able to Keep Same Funding for Schools

State schools Supt. Bill Honig says lower-than-expected attendance growth and roughly $300 million more in property taxes should enable state budget writers to keep school funding at least even next year, despite the recession.

Honig also said a plan to allow local school districts to raise money with the approval of a simple majority of voters--instead of the two-thirds majority now needed--was “being taken very seriously” in the initial discussions over the new budget.

“It’s certainly a serious proposal that should be considered,” Honig said in an interview this week. “When the governor vetoed (a similar) bill last year, he said it was an idea that was worth pursuing. There’s a perception that you’ve got to give local people the option over the health of their community. They’re saying, ‘I want a chance to control my future.’ ”

The author of the earlier legislation, Sen. Gary K. Hart (D-Santa Barbara), has introduced a similar bill for the new session.

Honig’s comments signaled his negotiating position with Gov. Pete Wilson and the Legislature as the fight nears over the 1993-94 state budget--the third consecutive budget facing a massive deficit. Honig hopes to allow schools to escape the kinds of cuts that hit other programs, including higher education.

Wilson is scheduled to unveil the spending plan next month, and it likely will contain new cuts and shifts of a portion of the state’s financial burden onto cities and counties.

The Wilson Administration declined to discuss the governor’s plans for education financing. Cynthia Katz, a spokeswoman for Maureen DiMarco, Wilson’s Cabinet-level education adviser, said Wednesday that the “revenue numbers have not been finalized and those won’t be released until the budget comes out.”

But she said the Republican governor “is going to do his darndest to hold per-pupil spending to $4,185--this year’s level” and that all financing proposals, including the local majority vote, are under study. “We are looking at all the options.”

According to the National Education Assn., California ranks 41st in the nation in per-pupil spending, more than $900 below the national average and about half what is spent in New York.