How bad (and badly managed) is the California economy? So bad that the UCLA Anderson School of Management is preparing to give back about $18 million in state funding because they’d rather take their chances getting more donations and raising tuition than counting on the state to actually supply the money budgeted to them. Any time any institution says it would rather give back $18 million, you have to figure they’ve done the calculation and figured it just wasn’t worth taking.
As somebody who has sat on the local school district’s budget committee for two years, I get it. What the state promises to pay the schools is a guess at best and a crime at worst. It’s the equivalent of the classic parental response to a child’s request: “maybe later.” I used to think that the schools in my state were over-funded. (And actually, that’s a suspicion I still harbor.) But one thing I’ve learned for sure: they are erratically funded. Money promised in September arrives in, say, February, and it’s never the full amount. Once I got an up-close look at our district’s financials I discovered two things, the first being that the financial model made absolutely no sense. The second thing I learned was this: that every year, for at least the past 13 years, our budget had been cut. Why do we suffer teacher layoffs, class-size increases, broken playground pavement, reduced programs (a music teacher who comes in only once every two weeks; a gravely reduced Gifted and Talented Education program; fewer field trips; fewer counselors; and so forth) and more, when theoretically the schools are allocated 40% of the state’s revenues and the state had several very healthy years in that time frame? Partly it’s because the state “borrows” this money, with promises to pay it back later. Partly it’s because… I just don’t know.
A few of us around here have come up with our own solution, and it somewhat mirrors what the Anderson School is proposing. Although we have no intention of suggesting giving back $18 million in funding (if we could even get it), we proposed some ideas to bring in our own funding for our schools, funding that each school could control and allocate on its own. Is that an ideal solution? No — imagine the impact on schools in poor neighborhoods if every school across the U.S. counted on local funding. But for Burbank it’s a good start, and it’s better than hoping that the state will get its act together. Because, as they say, hope is not a plan.
