Bill Backs Spending Freedom for District

In what one California education official calls a potential “sea change in school funding,” state legislation would give an Orange County school district unprecedented freedom to spend $10 million in funds that usually are restricted.

The groundbreaking plan, which will be considered today by the Assembly Education Committee, would allow the Capistrano Unified School District to take money earmarked for teaching English or physical fitness and instead use it to start Asian language programs, hire more counselors, or any way it chooses. If the bill, SB 240, is passed and the new spending freedom is deemed a success, officials may consider freeing other high-performing school districts from the state’s tight financial reins.

The bill was sponsored by Sen. Bill Morrow (R-Oceanside) and already has passed the state Senate. The move was born out of the district’s failed attempt last year to seek charter status and free itself from much of the state Education Code rules. It has won the backing of the powerful state teachers union and state Department of Education, which opposed the district last time.

“We are talking about a significant sea change in school funding,” said Teri Burns, deputy superintendent for governmental affairs for the Department of Education. “We want to see how a high-performing district does with this much flexibility.”

Supt. James A. Fleming, long a vocal advocate for more local control of districts, said parents, teachers and administrators in his district’s 44 schools know better than bureaucrats in Sacramento how money should be spent.

“The days of one size fits all do not fit any more,” he said.

The Department of Education got behind the bill after Capistrano Unified agreed to drop its plan to become a charter district. Charter schools are given autonomy from much of the massive Education Code in exchange for promises for better student performance. State officials objected, saying students who lived in the district but did not want to attend a charter school would have had no options. The bill died in committee last year.

When Morrow resubmitted the bill this spring, state officials worked out a compromise.

Under the revised plan, Capistrano Unified would be the only district in California to participate in a three-year pilot project freeing it from many financial restrictions imposed on other districts.

But there’s a catch: Students must continue to do well or state officials will “yank it at any time if they don’t seem to be serving the kids,” Burns said. “If Capistrano can do a good job . . . it bodes well,” she said. “I assure, if it doesn’t work for Capistrano, no one is ever going to do this.”

Mike Myslinksi, a spokesman for the California Teachers Assn., said the union will be lobbying for the bill today. “We support it because the teachers at the local level support it,” he said.