During his State of the State address last night, Governor Schwarzenegger outlined his proposal for additional funding for K-12 school facilities. The following is a summary of the Governor’s Proposal:

The state's K-12 schools need funding beyond the two years of financing provided by the current bonds to prepare for enrollment growth, reduce overcrowding, and repair dilapidated classrooms in compliance with the settlement agreement in Williams v. State of California.

• New Construction: $5.061 billion (general obligation bonds)

• Constructs 15,046 new classrooms to accommodate new students and reduce overcrowding.

• Modernization: $2.539 billion (general obligation bonds)

• Fixes 39,504 dilapidated classrooms serving more than 1 million students.

• Charter Schools: $2.0 billion (general obligation bonds)

• Establishes 1,219 new charter classrooms to serve more than 31,500 students and renovates 815 charter classrooms which will serve over 21,000 students.

• Career Technical Education: $2 billion (general obligation bonds)

• Constructs 5,897 new CTE classrooms to serve more than 152,000 students.

• This proposal provides obligation bond assistance for funding school’s needs through 2012-13. But limits on state debt capacity will make it necessary for schools to plan for additional bond measures and alternative financing strategies for financially troubled districts to ensure that every student goes to class in a safe, adequate classroom.
• The Governor’s proposal changes the state/local contribution ratio to 60/40 from the current 50/50. His proposal also reduces the cost of acquiring a school site.
• Finally, the Administration proposes to review the overall financing structure for schools, including consideration of public-private partnerships, to ensure sustainable funding of school facilities in the long run.

Note: For the purposes of clarification, the change in the state/local match from50/50 to 60/40 is 60% local, 40% state.

~Ian Padilla