California Governor Gavin Newsom announced an expected deficit for California’s state budget for the upcoming 2023 fiscal year on Jan. 10, causing concern over possible cuts to education funding across the state, according to reporter Sophia Bollag from the San Francisco Chronicle. If this shortfall were to happen, school districts will be forced to revisit their budgets, Bollag reported.
While no immediate budget cuts are expected, the district nevertheless prepares for such a contingency, Chief Business Officer Wendy Zhang said. The district is aware that most of its funding comes from the state, she said.
“We have a budget of approximately $174 million,” superintendent Cheryl Jordan said. “We get the bulk of our funding from the state in the form of the Local Control Funding Formula.”
The Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) and excess property taxes are responsible for adding $111 million to the budget, and that accounts for approximately 75% of the budget this school year, according to Zhang’s Approved Operating Budget (AOB). The remainder of the budget comes from local, state, and federal revenues, according to the AOB. Of the $111 million from the LCFF, $57.4 million came from local taxes, while the rest was granted by the state as aid, Zhang said.
“(Funding is) based on the number of students who are English learners, from low-income backgrounds, (or) might be at risk of homelessness or foster youth,” Jordan said. “The district gets additional funding dollars the higher that percentage of our population is, which is about 32% right now.”
Overall, MUSD had a revenue of $150 million and would have spent $165 million, according to the AOB. MUSD has been forced to pull money from several of its reserves to compensate for this loss, Zhang said. If the state or federal government were forced to reduce budgeting for school districts, MUSD would not be immediately affected, but will eventually have to begin saving money, Zhang added.
“We can encourage attendance across the district,” Zhang said. “Attendance across MUSD is at 96%, and if it increases just one percent more, that can result in the district receiving one million dollars.”
Beyond that, if the district disciplines itself in its spending, it will face no problems, Zhang said.