This post is quite long but I think it's worth taking a close look at one area of the budget and analyzing the options. Then you can watch what the Legislature does.
An "unfunded mandate" occurs when the state (or any government) passes a law and does not provide enough funds to comply with that law. We rarely have unfunded mandates but we certainly have underfunded
mandates. Class size is one. K-3 classes in CA public schools must be at 20 or less, which requires additional teachers. There are numerous budget problems with this. Many schools would like to go to an average size of 20 to 1. For example, suppose there are 102 1st graders and 95 second graders. With an average class size, you could have 5 first grades and 5 second grades (10 teachers, 10 classrooms) with an average class size under 20 (19.7 or 197/10). Under the law, though no class can exceed 20 so those first-graders would require 6 classes of 17 each and the second grade would require 5 classes of 19 students each. Now we have to pay for 11 classrooms and 11 teachers, which no real difference in educational quality.
According to the Legislative Analyst, the underfunding of class-size reduction is about to get worse:
Concerns Regarding Current-Year K-12 Reductions. School districts are well into the current fiscal year, having budgeted existing core programs on the assumed receipt of the above funds. It will be difficult for school districts to absorb a reduction of this size this late in the school year, especially since the Governor's proposal would require school districts to continue to meet all of the program requirements of each of the categorical programs. For example, while the proposal would reduce
K-3 class size reduction funding by $180 million, school districts would still have to meet the 20 to 1 student-to-teacher requirement of the program. In our December report, Analysis of the Mid-Year Budget Proposal, we identified many alternative possibilities for current-year General Fund savings in K-12 education which eliminate program requirements along with reducing funding.
Let's see if the Legislature corrects the issue by moving to an average class-size proposal or leaves schools in a funding crunch or just suspends the 20-1 requirement in certain areas, losing the benefits of reduced class size.
UPDATE: I was not quite correct in this post. CSR (Class Size Reduction) is not a mandate. It is optional. However, the state gives incentive money to schools that implement it. At this point, it will be difficult for the schools to do without the incentive money.