Crown City Network

Note: During the recent highly contested campaign for a school parcel tax in the Pasadena Unified School District no mention was made that the California legislature collapsed 40 previously categorical programs into a “flex item” that can be applied at the discretion of each school district to “core” classroom spending. This freed up 38% of the previous categorical or restricted funds for flexible use (see list below of permissible “flex items”). Local school districts, however, are required to hold a public hearing about where the “flex item” funding will be spent.

What we were apparently not told during PUSD’s Measure CC campaign was that the previous categorical block grants for “school and library improvement” and “music and arts” were collapsed into the new “flex item” fund. According to the California Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) about 20% of school districts have eliminated arts and music programs but 80% found a way to retain them.

Funding for K-3 class size reduction, child nutrition, and English Language Acquisition remain protected. Read excerpt below from LAO:

February 2009 Budget Package Suspends Many Categorical Program Requirements. Prior to 2008–09, the state separately funded approximately 60 K–12 categorical programs. For each of these categorical programs, school districts were required to use program monies to meet associated program requirements. Chapter 2, Statutes of 2009 (ABX4 2, Evans), essentially combined approximately 40 of these categorical programs into a “flex item” (see Figure 1 below). That is, a single statutory code section referenced all 40 programs and allowed school districts to shift funds among the 40 categorical programs or redirect the funds and use for any other educational purpose. (Colloquially, these programs are sometimes referred to as Tier 3 programs.) Local governing boards are required to discuss and approve the proposed use of these flexed funds at a regularly scheduled open public hearing. From a fiscal perspective, the flex item effectively converted $4.5 billion, or 38 percent of all categorical funding, from restricted to unrestricted monies. School districts are granted this flexibility from 2008–09 through 2012–13. The state continues to separately fund the remaining approximately 20 categorical programs (see Figure 2 above)—reflecting $7.5 billion, or 62 percent, of all categorical funding. (Colloquially, these programs are sometimes referred to as Tier 1 programs, if they were not subject to funding reductions in recent years, or Tier 2 progams, if they were subject to reductions.) Funding for these excluded programs remains linked to all associated program requirements.

You can also find the full report here.