CA Finance News Through June 26

June 26, 2009 by MikeMcMahonAUSD
Filed under: Finances

Federal News

Secretary Duncan issued a statement on the role of charter schools in turnaround business.

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released government-wide guidance for carrying out reporting requirements of Section 1512 of the ARRA, a list of programs subject to recipient reporting, and a recipient reporting data model. The Sunlight Foundation responded not including raw data at Recovery.gov, transparency is dramatically reduced .

This story identifies the trouble with recruiting teachers who have paid into Social Security in another career.

The Supreme Court was busy this week handing down ruling impacting schools:

Schools Must Pay for Private Schools in a special education ruling
School Violated Teen’s Rights in a ruling about an unlawful search
High Court Eases Oversight Of English Program in ruling about providing English language classes

Sacramento News

It was no surprise that budget vote failed on Wednesday. Taxes or cuts, there’s simply less to spend. On Thursday, they got closer when the Assembly passed a set of bills, but the Senate defeated them. The State issuing IOUs looms next Thursday if a new budget is not signed into law.

The Bay Area Council’s work on a Constitutional Convention get plenty of press this week. First, Capitol Weekly reported that Prop 13 was off the table as part of the reform effort. Then Calbuzz clarified what the Bay Area Council’s intent. By the end of the week, it appears the Bay Area Council is attempting to offload the effort to get a constitutional convention convened.

The bailout plan for the King City Joint Union High School District cleared its first Assembly review Wednesday.

The Public Policy Institute of California issued a report that shows significant differences in Internet access and use along ethnic lines with just over half of Latinos (52 percent) having home computers, in contrast to 89 percent of Asian Americans, 87 percent of whites and 75 percent of African-Americans. And only 39 percent of Latinos have broadband Internet service, far lower than the percentages for other ethnic groups.

The California School Board Association issued an advisory for school boards considering the possibility of salary reductions, specific steps must be taken by July 1.

The Secretary of State has this interactive showing the county by county election results of Prop 1B which only passed in three counties.

In a First Amendment challenge to a public school district policy prohibiting political communication via school mailboxes, the denial of the writ of mandate sought by San Leandro Teachers Association was affirmed where the mailboxes were a nonpublic forum, and the regulation was content-neutral.

A milestone on California’s meandering journey toward fiscal insolvency occurred exactly a decade ago when the Legislature enacted a massive increase in state employee pensions on the expedient assumption that it would cost taxpayers nothing.

School District Headlines

Naming rights for sporting events and large community events could be a new source of revenue for county offices of education. School districts are turning to leasing of shuttered facilities.

Staying the Course