The California Teachers Association says it backs Governor Jerry Brown’s proposal to change how the state distributes money to school districts. Katie Orr reports from Sacramento, that puts them at odds with legislative Democrats.
Brown’s plan includes giving more money to districts with a majority of low income and non-English speaking students. These “concentrations grants” are controversial among some legislators because they’d come at the expense of other districts.
Still, Democrats say they support the general idea of Brown’s plan. But Dean Vogel, President of the California Teachers Association, says schools need more money to teach these students.
“It’s hard to say that you’re in support of this local control funding support formula, as it’s presented by the governor, and then say you don’t like the concentration grant. The concentration grant is the piece of the formula that actually says we’re gonna actually put our money where our mouth is,” says Vogel.
Senate Democrats have proposed their own funding plan that eliminates the concentration grants.