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There is no such thing as a free school bus ride in California. An Assembly vote Thursday restored funds to school transportation budgets, but cut the amount of money the state pays per school district for educational services, say local school administrators.
Senate Bill 81, which replaces $248 million cut by a state budget “trigger” Jan. 1, was passed 54-4 , according to a press release sent out by the office of Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), who voted for the refunding.
State Senator Doug LaMalfa also voted in favor.
Governor Jerry Brown said that he will sign the bill into law.
Trigger 1, an automatic cut written into California’s 2011-12 state budget last summer, was scheduled to be pulled if state revenues did not increase by $4 billion by Dec. 15. It called for slashing state schools’ transportation funding by 50%.
The vast majority of state legislators say SB 81 fixes this.
“It's critical to ensure that our children can get to school. If this bill is not passed, some school districts are virtually going to be put out of business,” said Nielsen just before passage of the bill. “If we do not act, the results will be devastating not only for the rural communities who in many cases cannot afford to transport their children to school, but it affects families throughout California, rural, urban and suburban.”
Mark Telles, superintendent-principal at Castle Rock Elementary in Castella expressed mixed feelings on the bill's passage. “People are celebrating because the headlines say that school transportation funding is restored, but that's not accurate,” stressed Telles. “To restore the $248 million back to the state budget, they'll cut $42 per student in schools statewide. It's in the bill.”
He also said that under the original budget, which called specifically for cutting schools' transportation funding, schools that didn't have home-to-school bus service had nothing to cut. With the passage of SB 81, all schools in the state will see some cuts.
“What SB 81 did was make it more equitable,” he said. “I'm glad that at least they did that.”
According the text of SB 812, the amount of revenue that a school district may collect annually from the state for general purposes is called a revenue limit. Telles explained that when a revenue limit is reduced, the school receives less money.
How much less is not the same for all schools, according to Dunsmuir High School Chief Business Official Kim Vardanega. She said that there were two funding models for schools in Dunsmuir. “We're cut differently from ADA,” she said, referring to the Average Daily Attendance, or per-student cuts faced by Castle Rock.
There is no such thing as a free school bus ride in California. An Assembly vote Thursday restored funds to school transportation budgets, but cut the amount of money the state pays per school district for educational services, say local school administrators.
Senate Bill 81, which replaces $248 million cut by a state budget “trigger” Jan. 1, was passed 54-4 , according to a press release sent out by the office of Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), who voted for the refunding.
State Senator Doug LaMalfa also voted in favor.
Governor Jerry Brown said that he will sign the bill into law.
Trigger 1, an automatic cut written into California’s 2011-12 state budget last summer, was scheduled to be pulled if state revenues did not increase by $4 billion by Dec. 15. It called for slashing state schools’ transportation funding by 50%.
The vast majority of state legislators say SB 81 fixes this.
“It's critical to ensure that our children can get to school. If this bill is not passed, some school districts are virtually going to be put out of business,” said Nielsen just before passage of the bill. “If we do not act, the results will be devastating not only for the rural communities who in many cases cannot afford to transport their children to school, but it affects families throughout California, rural, urban and suburban.”
Mark Telles, superintendent-principal at Castle Rock Elementary in Castella expressed mixed feelings on the bill's passage. “People are celebrating because the headlines say that school transportation funding is restored, but that's not accurate,” stressed Telles. “To restore the $248 million back to the state budget, they'll cut $42 per student in schools statewide. It's in the bill.”
He also said that under the original budget, which called specifically for cutting schools' transportation funding, schools that didn't have home-to-school bus service had nothing to cut. With the passage of SB 81, all schools in the state will see some cuts.
“What SB 81 did was make it more equitable,” he said. “I'm glad that at least they did that.”
According the text of SB 812, the amount of revenue that a school district may collect annually from the state for general purposes is called a revenue limit. Telles explained that when a revenue limit is reduced, the school receives less money.
How much less is not the same for all schools, according to Dunsmuir High School Chief Business Official Kim Vardanega. She said that there were two funding models for schools in Dunsmuir. “We're cut differently from ADA,” she said, referring to the Average Daily Attendance, or per-student cuts faced by Castle Rock.
“We're a necessary small school formula, which is a block of students instead of individual students.” She explained that meant revenue limits are calculated on range of student numbers, concluding, “We're now 87 to 100.”
She said that she had absolutely no idea how much that block would cost DHS in SB 81-mandated revenue limit cuts.
Kathi Emerson, Superintendent of the Mount Shasta and Weed Union Elementary School Districts, said she does not see SB 81 as any kind of fix. “We're going to run transportation, regardless,” she said. “If you have to, you pay backfill through the general fund.”
Emerson also said that the benefits of the bill's restoration will be short-lived. “It's only good this year, until July 1,” she explained. “Next year, we're expecting a 100% cut to transportation, and no additional money from SB 81.”
Dunsmuir Elementary School Superintendent Cindy Rinne said that she appreciates the intent of SB 81, stating, “It's tough enough to run a school in today's economy without the state cutting our transportation funding in half.”
She said that whatever legislators do next, she hopes they factor in specific issues facing rural schools. “I would like them to consider the fact that most of us are facing declining enrollment,” she said. “We're in a very low-income area, with limited funds to spread around among fundraisers. I'm hoping they take a look at the students we're serving, and give us enough money we need to serve them adequately.”
As of Feb. 7, state schools were still waiting for Gov. Brown's signature on SB 81.
