Schwarzenegger’s Initiative Unfunded

As Arnold Schwarzenegger campaigns to become California’s next governor, he frequently touts his success in sponsoring a $550-million initiative last November to expand before- and after-school activities for hundreds of thousands of youngsters.

But Proposition 49, which marks Schwarzenegger’s only previous foray into public policy in California, is not expected to add a dime to such programs anytime soon. Analysts say that state funding for the initiative may not be available before 2007 -- three years beyond original projections -- because of the state budget crisis.

Meanwhile, families of the estimated 3.7 million elementary and middle school children who don’t have access to state-funded after-school programs must wait.

Schwarzenegger’s campaign has blamed Gov. Gray Davis for the delay. The governor, according to Schwarzenegger’s spokesman Sean Walsh, “inherited a multibillion-dollar surplus and turned it into a whopping deficit.”

But many children’s advocates said Schwarzenegger launched his political career on a measure that made big promises with no guarantee of delivery. It provided no new funding source, but instead bet on a growing state budget in a bad economy.

“I believe personally that it raises serious questions about what the policies of a Schwarzenegger administration would be, if this initiative is so fiscally irresponsible,” said Nancy Strohl, executive director of the Child Care Law Center, an advocacy group that opposed the measure.

Proposition 49 relies on the state’s general fund, not education funding, and requires no new taxes. Money is to be transferred automatically to the programs, without legislative action, when the noneducation portion of the budget grows by at least $1.5 billion over its highest level in the previous four years.

The problem is that the state’s general fund has not reached that level.

The state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst’s office has calculated that noneducation spending would have to increase to $49.6 billion for the measure to take effect, and that probably would not happen until 2007. General fund spending -- excluding education -- in the 2003-04 budget is $41.1 billion.

Once funding of programs begins, it will continue automatically each year, no matter what happens to the budget.

One of Schwarzenegger’s chief opponents, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante, endorsed Proposition 49 early on. Now, however, Bustamante’s campaign strategist, Richie Ross, has said that the initiative was crafted by “people of good will who didn’t really know what they were doing.” And he said that nothing in Schwarzenegger’s announced economic plan would jump-start after-school funding.

“He ran a fancy campaign and raised $10 million for an imaginary after-school program and that was his first political act,” Ross said. “His second political act was announcing for governor and saying ‘I ain’t really going to fund this thing.’ ”

A Davis spokesman, Peter Ragone, said the Schwarzenegger campaign’s assertions that Davis is responsible for delays in implementing Proposition 49 display a fundamental ignorance of California’s economic problems.

Ragone said that Schwarzenegger “doesn’t seem to know that the Bush recession has led 41 states to have budget problems. It appears that the depth of his ignorance on issues is even worse than Californians feared.”

After-school advocates said they had tried and failed to ensure that the initiative included a revenue source, akin to 1998’s Proposition 10 -- sponsored by fellow actor and children’s advocate Rob Reiner. That measure relied on a half-cent tax on tobacco sales to fund education programs for early childhood.

Even some who support the measure have questions about how it will work.

“There continue to be concerns about their method of funding such an important policy decision,” said Catherine Teare, policy director for Children Now, a California research and advocacy group that endorsed Proposition 49.

Even if the state funding were to come through, some critics worry that some schools in low-income and rural areas would be at a disadvantage because the measure requires that all schools match a portion of the grant through private or district sources.

Others said that the measure is too restrictive.

“It’s basically giving no discretion to the Legislature to prioritize other areas, like reversing cuts to the college system or to children’s health care or increasing funds for foster care or whatever else is on the table,” said Eric Wooten, a lobbyist with the League of Women Voters of California, which opposed the measure.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Walsh said that the budget shortfall is hardly the actor’s fault. In other respects, he said, the proposition is a good barometer of what would be Schwarzenegger’s populist governing style.

“He went to the Legislature and said, ‘This is an important program: You should enact it.’ And the Legislature gave him lip service,” Walsh said. “In classic Arnold fashion, he decided to take matters in hand and take it to the people.”

The fact that the measure does not rely on new taxes helped to sell it to a broad coalition of supporters, he added.

Schwarzenegger, Walsh said, hopes to get the economy turned around and the programs started earlier if Davis is recalled and he is elected governor. In the meantime, Walsh added, Schwarzenegger would use “his considerable influence” to pressure Congress to increase federal funding for such programs.

Some children’s advocates give Schwarzenegger credit for raising the issue and putting it on the state’s political agenda. The proposition, which is aimed at programs that offer academic benefits such as tutoring, makes every public elementary and middle/junior high school eligible for grants ranging from $50,000 to $75,000. Current state funding for before- and after-school programs is about $121 million for about 167,000 children. If Proposition 49 were fully funded, an additional 6,600 schools and 500,000 to 600,000 more children could be served, education officials said.

“Voters sent such a strong message that children need to be somewhere after school and that parents can’t pay for it by themselves,” said Carla Sanger, president of LA’s BEST, which operates one of the largest after-school programs in the country, serving 18,000 children year-round.

“We can’t underestimate the value of what the message was, and to that extent, this hasn’t been a time waster and it wasn’t about smoke and mirrors. It’s given strength to Arnold to carry his message nationally ... and it’s started a momentum.”

Sanger said that none of LA Best’s 114 school-based programs is in jeopardy because of delays in funding Proposition 49. With a budget next year expected at $23 million, LA’s BEST solicits public and private funds and does not establish a program unless it has at least three years of funding reserves, she said.

Still, some LA BEST sites have as many as 100 children on waiting lists, Sanger said.

The delay in Proposition 49 will probably hit some smaller programs, and those in rural areas, harder. Programs such as that at La Seda Elementary School in La Puente already are in danger of closing. About 50 children attend the program from noon to 4 p.m. during the summer and from about 2 to 5 p.m. during the school year.

Cliff Marcussen, executive director of Options, the child-care agency that runs the La Seda program and five others serving 360 San Gabriel Valley children, said the federal grant that fuels the programs will run out in May. He had hoped Proposition 49 funding would help keep it going. The youngsters in the program have improved their reading and math skills, said Omar Maldonado, Options’ education coordinator. In addition, parents in the low-income, high crime community are more actively involved and “feel their children are safe when they’re with us,” said Maldonado,

Marlene Cardoso, 10, and Diego Huerta, 12, have been with the program since it started two years ago. Both say their school grades have improved as a result.

The program provides help with homework as well as recreation, arts and crafts and other activities. The children recently participated in Hawaii day, for example, learning about the subtropical environment, culture, foods and oceans.

“The teachers are pretty cool,” Marlene said. “You have a lot of fun and you learn at the same time.”