Bustamante Blasted for School Funds Delay

A spokesman for Gov. Pete Wilson on Wednesday lashed out at Assembly Speaker Cruz Bustamante (D-Fresno) for what he labeled a politically motivated “money grab” that could delay the delivery of $141 million school districts are counting on to help them pay for badly needed new classrooms.

“We don’t want districts that went through the entire process and applied and expected to get this money on a need basis to be shortchanged by some back-room deal-making by some member of the Legislature,” said Sean Walsh, Wilson’s spokesman. “We’re very concerned with this issue.”

A state Department of Education official said the move by Bustamante’s office to hold up the funds was “a big kind of revenge thing” for a deal Wilson backed last fall that benefited two counties--San Bernardino and Riverside--where powerful Republican legislators were seeking election to new posts.

A spokesman for Bustamante said the issue of retribution “did not come up” in a staff discussion of how to respond to questions on the issue.

The money in question in Wednesday’s flap was left over from $771 million allocated last year to cover the cost of hiring teachers and buying supplies to reduce the number of pupils in many primary grade classrooms to no more than 20.

Wilson, with bipartisan backing, wanted to shift the surplus from that account to another one. The shift would allow the money to be used to cover most of a $151-million shortfall in the funds available to schools for capital costs, such as buying portable classrooms in which to hold the additional kindergarten, first-, second- and third-grade classes that had to be created this year.

Until Wednesday, the legislation needed to transfer the funds from one account to the other, sponsored by Assemblyman Curt Pringle (R-Garden Grove), was on a fast track that would have put the money in the hands of school district officials in a matter of weeks.

But Assemblywoman Kerry Mazzoni (D-San Rafael), who chairs the Education Committee, held up the bill at its first hearing, saying she was acting on behalf of Bustamante.

Mazzoni told the committee that Bustamante wanted the bill amended to specifically exclude schools in San Bernardino and Riverside counties from receiving any funds. He also wanted to divide the money on a per-pupil basis statewide, rather than give it to districts based on the applications they submitted last fall.

The exclusion of those two counties appeared to be a slap at Republicans for a shift in school funds that occurred with Wilson’s support last September.

In that action, the State Allocation Board, which doles out state bond funds, awarded $25 million for creating a school computer network to San Bernardino County, which former Republican Assemblyman Jim Brulte was seeking to represent in the Senate. It also awarded $10 million to Riverside County, where former Republican state Sen. Bill Leonard was seeking a seat in the Assembly.

Leonard and Brulte were both serving on the Allocation Board at the time.

Ron Gray, a spokesman for Bustamante, said Bustamante ordered the bill held up because he “is concerned that all districts have an opportunity to share” in funds to expand classroom space.

Mazzoni said Bustamante agreed that the funds should be made available quickly and that she hoped her committee would vote on the bill next week.

Times staff writer Max Vanzi in Sacramento contributed to this story.