State Congressional bills seek to preserve, boost school funding amid pandemic – Orange County Register
A package of proposed legislation has been introduced by a South Bay congressman to help the state’s school districts deal with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
Contract Bills 1607, 1609, and 1614 would provide school districts with the financial stability they need to keep schools running through the public health crisis.
“We need to do everything we can to support our schools, families and children during this ongoing COVID-19 crisis,” Representative Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, said in a statement. announced when his office unveiled three bills earlier this month. “School districts should be held financially harmless because of the short-term drop in attendance as more and more students get sick.”
AB 1607 will require calculating average daily attendance based on two current and previous financial years, commencing with the 2022-23 school year.
Under current law, the state uses only the average daily attendance for the most recent school year to calculate the amount the district received. The more students drop out of school, the less money the district receives.
AB 1609 will keep school districts financially harmless from the brief drop in attendance during the pandemic, extending the state’s previous innocuous requirement for loss of attendance.
And AB 1614 will add $4.2 billion to the state’s baseline fund for schools for the 2022-2023 fiscal year. The Office of Legislative Analysis recently predicted that the 2022-23 state budget will have an additional $9.5 billion in funding for the district’s ongoing expenses, Muratsuchi’s press release said.
School districts across the state have for years called for increased grassroots funding to give them more flexibility, Muratsuchi said. An increase in the base allowance will also trigger additional benefits.
AB 1614, if enacted, would also place California among the top 10 states for spending per K-12 student, Muratsuchi’s statement said.
The pandemic has caused both enrollment and attendance to decline across California school districts.
Enrollment in the Los Angeles Unified School District, for example, fell by more than 20,000 students from the 2019-20 to 2020-21 school year, according to state education data.
LAUSD officials support the proposed law, a district spokesman said.
Enrollment drops more than 1,000 from 2019-20 through 2020-21 for both Garden Grove Unified, Orange County, and Riverside Unified; these school districts are about 14 times smaller than LAUSD, so the 1,000-student drop in enrollment for them is much more significant.
In contrast, enrollment in all three districts was relatively stable from the 2017-18 to 2019-20 school year.
District spokeswoman Diana Meza said RUSD has also fallen slightly over the past year.
“Falling school attendance and enrollment is always a concern, especially during a pandemic,” says Meza. Our focus is on providing engaging, innovative, and equitable learning experiences for all students and have balanced systems in place to manage fluctuations (in) participation and enrollment. ”
RUSD officials, Meza added, believe the counties need the “soft landing” that the Muratsuchi bills will provide.
However, enrolling in all three of those school districts, still relatively stable from 2017-18 to 2019-20, citing coronavirus as the cause of the subsequent decline.
Muratsuchi introduced AB 1607 to Congress on January 4 and two other bills the next day.
The bills could have their first congressional committee hearing as early as next month.
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/01/15/state-assembly-bills-seek-to-preserve-boost-school-funding-amid-pandemic/ State Congressional bills seek to preserve, boost school funding amid pandemic – Orange County Register