Wilson Proposes Major Education Funding Hike

Gov. Pete Wilson on Tuesday called for $3 billion more spending on public schools and colleges next year--$1 billion above what he proposed in January and $500 million beyond what the law requires for the lower grades.

Wilson’s new proposals, which include $250 million for new math textbooks and $230 million for new library books and science equipment for kindergarten through high school, are part of his revised budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1.

The governor also is calling for $45 million more to be spent on teacher training, and $60 million more for summer reading and math classes to help students in grades 3 through 6.

Wilson’s plan is almost enough to give each of California’s 5.7 million public school students a new math book--although school finance experts said the spending proposals for books and libraries still would leave California lagging behind national averages.

While details remain sketchy, the governor’s teacher training and recruitment effort could put several thousand dollars into the pockets of 8,500 prospective and current teachers.

“We are prepared to take our commitment to California schools to an unprecedented level,” Wilson said.

Wilson’s Department of Finance estimates that the cost of providing books and other teaching material to meet new math standards will be $278 million. The $250 million will put “a new math book on the desk of virtually every student in California,” said department spokesman H.D. Palmer.

But even with the new money for textbooks, California would be spending about $60 per student on schoolbooks. That leaves California below the national average of about $75 per student for a complete set of textbooks, said Doug Stone, a spokesman for Supt. of Public Instruction Delaine Eastin.

“The $250 million is a nice chunk of change,” Stone said, noting that Eastin had requested an extra $141 million for new textbooks, $109 million less than Wilson has called for. “It would get us closer to the national average, which is where we need to go.”

Wilson, fashioning his eighth and final budget, has announced about $1.5 billion in new spending initiatives in recent days, the result of a budget surplus that could reach $4 billion. As he has done in past years, the governor is orchestrating leaks leading up to the release of the revised budget, hoping to attract the widest possible support for his proposals.

Wilson still is left with enough money for a significant tax cut proposal and has signaled that he wants to pare vehicle license fees raised in 1991 to help erase a $7.5-billion budget deficit.

Altogether, state, federal and local governments will spend about $40 billion on California’s public schools next year.

Public school lobbyists and advocates, accustomed to annual budget fights with Wilson over school spending, were taken aback by the governor’s education plan, and lauded it.

“I’m surprised by the magnitude,” said lobbyist John Mockler, who represents the Los Angeles Unified School District and several other public school district clients. “It’s a wonderful sign. . . . It’s an important real and symbolic step.”

In Wilson’s January state budget proposal, public schools had been guaranteed $31 billion under voter-approved Proposition 98’s complex funding formula. The new proposal brings that to $31.5 billion, Department of Finance officials say.

The extra $500 million is significant because it raises the minimum funding threshold, meaning that schools will continue to receive more than the current legal minimum in future years. It’s the first time that a governor has willingly given schools more than they were entitled to under Proposition 98, which was approved in 1988.

“I’m delighted to see we’re going over the minimum floor,” said state Sen. Dede Alpert (D-Coronado), the chairwoman of the Senate Education Committee. “That’s a positive step. It sounds like a good place to begin from.”

Some education finance experts outside the administration believe that Wilson unfairly reduced the amount of money that schools should have received in the first place, and suggest that the latest boost will be somewhat less than the governor stated.

While education officials and Democrats liked much of Wilson’s plan, there still may be fights over how the governor proposes to allocate some of the money.

The Republican governor, for example, renewed his call for $40 million for so-called opportunity scholarships, so top-performing children attending the worst public schools can use tax-supported vouchers for private school tuition. Teachers’ unions and Democratic lawmakers have fought that idea and probably will again.

While public schools will receive most of the new money, Wilson has earmarked an additional $250 million to the University of California and the California state college systems. Community colleges would get an extra $68 million, primarily to provide remedial classes.

On Wilson’s proposal to spend $230 million more on libraries and science labs, Stone said California needs to spend about $700 million on library books alone to reach the national average.

If all the $230 million went for libraries, the money would be “about a third of the way toward getting to the national average,” Stone said. “There are still books in our school libraries that talk about how one day man will be walking on the moon.”

Among the most significant elements of the proposal is one to spend $45 million more on teacher recruitment and training. California long has had teacher shortages, particularly in Los Angeles County. The shortages have worsened dramatically in the past two years, as a result of the state’s effort to reduce class size in lower grades to no more than 20 to 1.

More than 30,000 classrooms across the state are now staffed by unlicensed teachers, causing school districts to scramble to find ways to train them on the job through internships or special night and weekend classes.

The governor proposes to expand a program that forgives loans to college students entering teaching. As many as 4,500 prospective teachers could have $11,000 of their loans forgiven. Currently, the program serves about 400 college students.

Another component of the recruitment effort would provide tuition to 3,000 college students to enroll in fifth-year teaching credential programs.

To encourage current teachers to improve, Wilson is offering as many as 1,000 teachers one-time $10,000 bonuses if they achieve national board certification. Currently, he said, only 70 teachers in California’s public schools have such credentials.

Wilson said that while he believes that teachers should be paid competitive salaries, he wants to make sure that local school boards don’t spend all the new money that he has proposed on raises for teachers and other school employees.

“The key word is invest, not spend,” Wilson said. “What we’re saying is, it’s a question of priorities.”

Other school spending proposals Wilson outlined include:

* $10 million to encourage low-income students to take college entrance tests.

* $50 million for after-school programs for children in kindergarten through 9th grades in low-income or high-crime areas. Wilson envisions that programs would stress academics and end what he calls “the tragedy of social promotion.”

* $6 million to help start charter public schools. Wilson signed legislation last week allowing for a significant increase in the number of such schools.

* Another $11.3 million for early childhood education.

* A $2-million grant to Cal State Sacramento to recruit teachers, and $8 million to help 4,000 teachers with emergency credentials obtain full credentials.

Times education writer Richard Lee Colvin contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Bonus Spending (Southland Edition, A1)

Gov. Wilson has proposed spending $3 billion more on education next year. Among the key items:

K Through 12 (in millions)

New math books and instructional material: $250

New library material and science equipment: $230

After-school programs for students in grades kindergarten through 9 in troubled areas: $50

Teacher training and recruitment: $45

Merit bonuses of $10,000 for teachers who earn National Board Certification: $10

****

HIGHER EDUCATION

To state universities, for such items as computers, libraries and maintenance: $248