Editorial: Don’t lock in more California school spending, reject Prop. 28

Spending on California K-12 public education has reached record levels. Student enrollment is at the lowest point in two decades. The result: Per-student expenditures adjusted for inflation are the highest since at least 1988.

Yet, for some, there’s never enough money.

Come the Nov. 8 election, voters will be asked to lock in even more funding for schools, this time to increase spending on arts-education programs. But there would be no new revenue sources to cover the annual cost of about $1 billion. Instead, the money would come out of the state’s general fund.

In other words, schools, which already receive the single-largest chunk of the state budget and which are enjoying revenue that dwarfs what they were receiving just a few years ago, would receive even more money. That would leave less for other state programs and to save and pay down debt before the next, inevitable economic downturn.

Voters should reject Proposition 28. It’s fiscally reckless to keep earmarking unpredictable state general fund money when we don’t know what the future needs of California will be as it confronts, for example, a housing shortage, climate change, inadequate water supplies and wildfires.

There are strong arguments for the benefits of arts education, especially for children coping with the pandemic. But permanently locking in more funding is a different matter. If school districts want to spend more of their existing funds on arts education, there’s nothing stopping them from doing so with the record revenues they already receive.

That should be a decision for each local school board. The state should not be dictating spending for arts anymore than it should be setting funding levels for math and science, or English and reading, or physical education.

Under the 1988 voter-approved Proposition 98 funding formula, about 40% of the state’s general fund must go toward community colleges and, mostly, public schools. Prop. 28 would add another 1% of the mandated public-school portion for more arts education.

As it is, the state this fiscal year will kick in a record $95.5 billion for public schools under the Prop. 98 funding formula. It works out to about $17,000 per student. No longer is California at the bottom of the country for school spending.

While reliable state-to-state, cost-of-living-adjusted comparison data lags by years, many think California is now at least around the middle of the pack. And that doesn’t count one-time money from the federal government.

Rather than asking for even more money, it’s time for education advocates to press for more accountability for the sums that are being spent.

It’s been nine years since Gov. Jerry Brown restructured California’s school funding formulas to direct more money to the state’s neediest students. Before the pandemic upended education in California, there had been slow improvement in kids’ poor academic performance, but the state was making little to no progress in closing its huge racial and economic achievement gaps. Meanwhile, there’s still no formal mechanism for tracking whether districts spend the extra money from Brown’s plan on the neediest students.