School districts around the state, after years of funding drought, look forward to new money expected to flow from voter approval of propositions 207 and 208. And while it might be months before dollar amounts are better defined, increased revenue should flow to districts from one tax on legalized marijuana and another upon those who earn above $250,000 per year.
“We’ve had quite a few lean years where we had to make a lot of cuts and increase class sizes. We went a number of years without raises until Red for Ed, so we’ve really enjoyed the last few years with that positive stream,” said Gretchen Dorner, Superintendent of the Kingman Unified School District (KUSD). “Now to know that there’s a second source it feels like we may be able to get our heads above water with some class size, curriculum and support service improvements. We’re so excited.”
KUSD Finance Director Ahron Sherman thinks approval of the ballot measures will bring more money to the education sector.
“Schools across the state are going to see revenue they haven’t seen before. That’s just the bottom line,” Sherman said. He said districts will be better able to gauge local budget impacts once lawmakers pass enabling legislation that will put the propositions into effect.
Sherman said questions awaiting answers include timetables, funding amounts, spending restrictions and how the money will be delivered.
“Is it going to show up in the base level support? If it shows up there, it’s money for moving forward. That’s money at the level of the student. If they’re raising how much they’ll give you per student, then you know you can budget for that going forward,” Sherman said. He said money from a ballot measure approved years ago was not allocated on a per student basis.
“They didn’t tie it to the base level support. They just gave you an allocation every year. It’s harder to fold something like that into your long-term plans,” Sherman said. He said it’ll likely be late February or March before school districts can calculate impacts of enabling legislative activity.
Governing board members will make the spending and budget decisions, but need in one area is quite clear to Dorner.
“A goal is to reduce class sizes. That’s been a goal for a number of years,” Dorner said. “We had to increase class sizes back during those years when we were seeing exorbitant cuts and it would be really nice to bring those numbers back down.”
Dave Hawkins