Guest Commentary
by Rick Winet
Let me begin with a question: Do you believe that greater funding for public schools equates to greater student achievement? While all parents, public school employees, and taxpayers would hope that the answer is “yes” — sadly, this is not the case.
In the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District, we began significant budget reductions three years ago. The State of California, from which public schools receive a vast majority of their funding, has “deferred” its financial obligations to school districts, requiring budget cutbacks along with “forced” school district borrowing. In order to deal with this harsh reality, our school district implemented across-the-board salary reductions in 2009. We have reduced our spending by millions in each of the last three years — and yes, our student test scores have continued to rise.
Here is another fact that public school union leaders would prefer not be known: 90 percent plus of all public school budgets go to employee salaries and benefits. So, as you sift through the union-backed political advertising promoting the need for passage of Propositions 30 (Governor Brown’s Initiative) and 38 (Molly Munger’s Initiative), please understand that taxpayers are being asked to increase their burden in order to support public school employee salaries and benefits.
Unfortunately, when it comes to public school employee compensation, we in California have a history of fiscal mismanagement. Twelve years ago, soon to be recalled Governor Gray Davis used his new-found power to pay-off the unions that helped finance his campaign. In an unprecedented and completely irresponsible maneuver, Davis shepherded a statewide 10 percent salary increase for public school employees. Given the fact that half of our State budget goes to public school funding (and that 90 percent of that funding goes to salaries & benefits), it is no mystery why a decade later the State is teetering on the cliff of insolvency.
In California, the time for public school employee compensation reform is long overdue. And this is certainly not the time to pass tax increases and provide even greater assets to a failed, visionless, centralized institution in Sacramento.
Please join me in voting no on both Propositions 30 & 38 in November.
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Winet has served as a Governing Board Member of the La Mesa-Spring Valley School District since 1998. He is past chairman of the Better Business Bureau of San Diego & Imperial Counties.