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Superintendent's Message

Winter 2012

Each January the governor announces his budget proposal and unfortunately, in recent times, this has meant delivering bad news. While this has become an unfortunate annual tradition, we can’t ignore the fact that year after year our state fails to fix the problematic and inadequate funding of public education.

Once again the state is threatening not to meet the minimum funding guarantee under Proposition 98. The Governor proposes a November ballot measure to increase income and sales taxes. If taxes are not approved, Proposition 98 funding would be even more significantly reduced. Average unified school districts should be receiving what’s called “Revenue Limit” funding of $6,692 per Average Daily Attendance (ADA) in 2012-2013. Based on the Governor’s budget “protecting” education (taxes pass), we still expect to only receive $5,242 per ADA representing underfunding of more than $75 million annually. If the tax proposals fail, we expect underfunding of more than $93 million.

Even if the tax initiative passes, SFUSD’s projected deficit grows under the Governor’s proposal. With the Governor’s best-case scenario, SFUSD’s projected deficit through FY 2013-14 appears likely to grow from $15-$20 million to more than $86 million.

Our district has already absorbed cuts of $113 million in its $500 million general fund budget in the past two years. We struggle daily to meet the basic academic needs of our students as we receive less than eighty cents of each dollar that California is supposed to provide under state law. SFUSD has already made deep cuts, including eliminating four days from the school year and drastically reducing summer school offerings, centralized support services and transportation services.

California remains one of the wealthiest states in one of the wealthiest nations yet California has squandered what used to be one of its greatest assets—a strong and robust public education system. Fortunately, in San Francisco, our residents continue to support local funding for our schools. However, this local funding is only a small percentage as the majority of funding for public schools comes from the state.

Let’s keep working together to increase the state’s contribution to public schools for the sake of our children and the future of California.

Sincerely,

Carlos A. Garcia
Superintendent