Funding Public Education

Irvine public schools got some encouraging but mixed news this month. Private donations amounting to $1.3 million will make continued class-size reductions possible in some of the lower grades. However, the inevitable budget cuts that still must be carried out as the district tries to make ends meet will cost dozens of teachers their jobs.

While some of this news is bad, Irvine’s success in fund-raising shows that it remains one of the few lucky ones. Several years ago, the Donald Bren Foundation came forward to preserve art and science programs with a hefty donation. Irvine is a city where new housing developments sell out in a hurry because of its attraction as a place to raise families. It has a broad parent base and a core of business supporters who value education.

How many others can rely on wealthy benefactors, committed parents and even an assist from the city government to make up the difference when the going gets tough? As much as this is about one district’s successful rally, it is also an ominous warning that less affluent public districts may suffer most if the state’s budget crisis deepens. What will happen to Santa Ana as ambitious programs must give way to fiscal realities? Certainly parents in less affluent areas have no less desire to see their children get the best.

The budget crunch in Irvine and other districts is in some ways the story of how the suburban dream can be jeopardized by cracks in its fiscal underpinnings. The state’s multibillion-dollar budget shortfall has put a lot of pressure on districts everywhere. Irvine has shown that it can meet the test, but it is hard to imagine too many other public school systems in the county or region in which parents would say, as one reportedly did during the recent fund-raising campaign, “Just double mine.”

Other affluent areas in Orange County are now facing tough choices. Should they make do with less or dig deep and pay extra? Capistrano Unified faces millions in cuts, potential layoffs and delays in construction of school facilities. Parents in Saddleback Valley Unified have rallied just as Irvine parents have, but even as their district faces staff cuts, there is concern about the future of some programs. Nor is Irvine out of the woods by any means. The largess closes the budget gap for the short term, but the long-range prospects of retaining smaller classes in the critical early years will still be a challenge.

While many of the families who live in these districts are affluent on a relative scale, lots have made it in on a shoestring family budget, scraping together a down payment with the help of family and then curbing their entertainment and vacation budgets. The imposition of parcel taxes, previously rejected in Irvine, now may have to be revived there and/or implemented in some form elsewhere.

The translation is: Taxes may have to go up to keep quality high. What long has been a system of public education in suburbs now is taking on some of the earmarks of a tuition plan, called by another name. Administrators, parents and officials from the local districts to Sacramento must recognize that the game is about paying somehow or losing favored programs. These aren’t pleasant choices, but they call for a robust debate on the very aims of public education.