For those of you in California, you can't help but have heard of the latest idea to suspend Prop. 98 funding for education.  The big secret, at least with legislative opponents, unions and the media, is that the funds for education that would be lost in this temporary suspension would be largely made up by the Federal stimulus funds.  The Governor knew this when he proposed the suspension. 

 

This is a smart plan for California.  The state gets to divert money to help the rest of the state budget, and the schools do not loose valuable funding in the short term, because the Federal government has already forwarded the money through the stimulus package (don't get me started on what I think about the stimulus; I am writing this post specifically as it relates to the needs of CA).

 

The other big secret about the school funding through Prop. 98 is that it is directly tied to the state's revenue, which has been FALLING dramatically the past few years.  The percentage set aside for education is not the same in dollars each year because of the decline of state income.  As California continues to become a pure welfare state and businesses and productive citizens contintue to take flight, education funding will continue to suffer.  The Governor's plan to suspend Prop. 98 funding will acutally stabilize the education budget in the short term. 

 

Of course, in the long term, as long as California continues to tax companies out of business and act as a sanctuary state for non-producers, public education here is doomed to failure.