passage in Pasadena that the district could use for 2010-11. CHANGES IN FUNDING It wasn’t just that the state cut education funding this year; the way districts are funded changed, too. The first hint of those changes surfaced this summer. School districts across the state scaled back their summer programs to varying degrees. Many districts opted to make cuts to their summer-school programs — particularly those “get ahead” programs for students looking to get a math or health class out of the way in the summer — in lieu of making cuts to programs during the school year. In some districts, all that was left in the summer were programs for special-education students and high-school students studying to pass their exit exam or retaking core classes they failed. In the past, summer school was just one of 60 programs categorically funded by the state — that is, funding with strings attached. These programs included class size reduction in grades K-3, GATE, tobacco use prevention education, studying for the high school exit exam and safety violence prevention. The state would allot a certain amount of money for every district to spend on summer school, and if a district didn’t spend it on summer school,
it lost it. Summer school money couldn’t be used to pay for special education or teachers. That changed in February — at least temporarily. State legislators loosened the strings attached to 40 of the more than 60 categorical programs. The money that was normally set aside for, say, summer school was now available to pay teachers’ salaries. Faced with a choice between laying off a teacher or cutting a summerschool class, most districts chose to raid the summer-school budget to keep from making cuts that would affect the regular school year. The legislators’ decision to make it easier to spend the money in categorical programs has been a bright spot in the budget crisis, Brewer says. Experts like him have been recommending that state legislators cut the strings to these programs for the last decade. Categorical programs ensure that certain programs like special education survive harsh years — and some programs like special education will still be funded separately — but Brewer says many of the programs aren’t practical. In previous years, he says there was a special category for something as specific as high-school gardens. Districts found it frustrating that they weren’t allowed to use those funds for anything else in leaner times. “In the past, if you talked to district folks,
South Pasadena
there would be lots of frustration at how there might be 20, 30, 40 — at some points California had more than 100 — of these programs that all have different rules,” Brewer says. “If you felt your district had some other need, you were out of luck. You had to spend the money on what the state dictated you spend it on.” Legislators passed the change in crisis mode, but the change isn’t permanent: in five years, the strings will return. Also, the first hint that some districts were better poised to deal with the state budget cuts emerged in the summer. Districts like PUSD — as well as Arcadia Unified, Temple City Unified and Walnut Valley Unified — were able to provide summerschool classes for students who wanted to get ahead or take supplementary courses. Though privately-funded foundations and corporations took a hit with Wall Street’s plummeting worth, they were not hamstrung by the state budget crisis, and they were able to provide more stable levels of funding. Parents in these districts still had to shell out at least a few hundred dollars so that their children could take these classes. But in the summer, it was already clear: even though every district suffered massive cuts, some communities with extra resources
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