Issue Is With the Legislature as Schools Face Hard Reality

State officials say they don’t have nearly enough money to cover the cost of creating anticipated new classrooms under the state’s much ballyhooed, and immensely popular, class-size reduction program. The Wednesday announcement came as a bitter shock to many school supporters, including some in Los Angeles and Orange counties, who had made unprecedented efforts this past summer to hire teachers and provide new space to meet the challenge.

Were Gov. Pete Wilson and state Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin unconscionably inaccurate in their cost projections in July, when the program was announced? Did they badly underestimate public interest? Did they ever imply that the $200 million in state monies for new classroom space would cover all the state’s needs?

The answer to each question is no. But there remains plenty of blame to go around here.

Wilson aides pointed out in July that school districts would have to come up with some of their own money for new classroom construction. Eastin also noted that it would take $2 billion to build enough space to reduce class sizes for four grades statewide (K-3). Of course the $200 million planned for the two grades in Wilson’s plan (first and second) wouldn’t cover costs. An additional $95 million the state promised in September helped, but not that much. Los Angeles Unified School District officials weren’t surprised by the funding gap in the program. But the reality of it places a premium on passage of local Proposition BB on the November ballot. Part of the money raised by that measure could help meet the district’s huge need for more classroom space.

Yes, Wilson and Eastin could have been more explicit, especially given the great public enthusiasm for the plan designed to improve teacher-student ratios and thereby boost education. They also could have based the program on need, giving poor districts first crack at the pie.

The Legislature, meanwhile, should have put another bond measure on this November’s ballot to help close the funding gap for new classroom space. It foolishly failed to do so, even when the wave of public enthusiasm for the project became apparent.

Some school districts got absolutely loopy over the whole thing, foolishly hiring, planning and seeking money for new space for as many as four grades, not the two that Wilson had in mind. The statewide class-size reduction plan remains an important goal. But some school districts will have to scale back ambitious plans in the face of reality. The Legislature, meanwhile, should put a new classroom construction bond measure at the top of the “do list” for the next session.