End of Social Promotion to Cost Less Than Feared

Los Angeles school officials on Thursday announced a $7.1-billion budget proposal that earmarks substantially less money than expected for programs to end social promotion.

The budget outline, presented to some members of the L.A. school board, would provide $70.9 million to prepare failing students for standards-based promotion.

The money would provide after-school, weekend and off-track classes to nearly 110,000 elementary school students considered in danger of being held back next year if they fail to show grade-level competency.

Up to 50,000 secondary students would also receive training under state funding for summer school.

Earlier this spring, district officials said they expected to spend $140 million on the program to end social promotion, the practice of moving students to the next grade level even if they haven’t mastered the requirements.

That forecast was based on an assessment of standardized test scores indicating that 157,000 students in grades two through five would need remedial work.

Since then, however, 40,000 students have been dropped from the projected list. Supt. Ruben Zacarias said the reduction reflected a more thorough assessment of the students’ abilities, rather than funding limitations.

He said the district has found the money for every student who needs additional training in reading.

“It is our way of saying that the No. 1 priority is student achievement,” Zacarias said. “There are those who will say we are moving too fast. We can’t afford to wait.”

Robert Collins, director of curriculum and instruction, said teachers used a test that gauged each student’s skills against the requirements for grade level.

The district proposal also drops a $40-million plan to create a new layer of administrators at elementary schools to guide the shift to standards-based promotion.

In addition, Zacarias said, administrative offices are being asked to make 5% cuts to help pay for the training. In most cases, that would be done by forgoing purchases of equipment and supplies. Any staff reductions would be achieved without layoffs, he said.

The office cuts, affecting everything from transportation to personnel, would free up about $11.8 million. The remainder of the training budget would come from a combination of state and federal grants and the general fund.

Board President Victoria M. Castro, who was briefed on the budget, praised it as a balanced plan that would help the lowest level of students without forcing schools to sacrifice other programs.

Many school administrators and parents worried that they would have to sacrifice other programs to pay for the training.

But board member David Tokofsky lashed out at the administration for delivering only partial budget figures long after other local agencies had held public hearings.

“This is like mass ineptitude,” Tokofsky said.

Tokofsky said he was disappointed that the briefing he received Thursday covered only 1% of the budget.

“The only interesting thing is we’re at $7 billion now,” Tokofsky said, which is nearly double the amount of 1995’s budget.

The budget would include $54 million to pay for a 2% salary increase called for in employee contracts.

In order to fund the student training, the district put about $80 million for other programs on hold, said budget director Marty Varon. Those include extra teacher recruitment and training.

Those items could be funded later if the district receives more money than expected in the state’s final budget, due this summer.

Last year, a bonus of about $70 million fueled a battle between Zacarias, who wanted to use it for new programs, and the employee unions eyeing it for a raise.

After wrestling with the issue for months, the board approved most of Zacarias’ requests, and the district scraped up enough for a 2% bonus.

The Board of Education will discuss the current budget proposal Tuesday and vote on it June 22.