Brown (left), Kashkari (right)

Governor Jerry Brown and his Republican challenger, Neel Kashkari, spent a few testy minutes in their debate last night talking about public education.

Their exchange largely focused on the recent decision by Brown, as a loser in Vergara vs. California, to appeal the ruling, which struck down laws protecting teacher employment rights.

Brown was asked why he did and answered this way: “I am appealing because the Constitution requires the Court of Appeals to invalidate the laws of California?

Kashkari suggested Brown made the wrong call:  “The judge got it right. This is one of the most important civil rights cases in years. Nine kids sued Governor Brown and said their civil rights are being violated by a failing school. You side with the union bosses. You should be ashamed of yourself. I’m going too fight for the kids.”

Brown: “That is so false.”

Kashkari: “It’s absolutely true.”

You can view clips here, and here.

While teachers and school districts across the state will see their contribution rates increase, LAUSD, the largest school district in the state, will pay the lions-share.

The rescue, which will help address a $74 billion shortfall in the teachers pension fund, requires school districts to radically raise their contributions to the fund from the current rate of 8.25 percent, to a rate of 19.1 percent by 2020. Teachers will see a more modest step up, from 8.15 percent to an eventual 10.25 percent of their salary, over the same seven year period. The state’s contribution will rise from 3 percent to 6.3 percent.

But In real dollar terms, the pension contribution price tag for LAUSD is steep: it will eventually more than double by the end of the phase-in period, from its current payment of $213 million per year, to $493 million per year by 2020.

“It is a daunting thought,” Dennis Meyers, executive director for governmental relations at the California School Board Association, told LA School Report.  “Districts were not expecting an increase in the 2014-2015 fiscal year so to have this plan to increase employer rates start so soon was a shock.”

“This doesn’t buy any more services for kids, this is a debt. It’s not going to result in   anything new or improved services for kids,” Meyers said.

According to Edgar Zazueta, LAUSD’s chief lobbyist, school districts requested a one year delay but were turned down.

“The governor’s office and the Legislature didn’t want to go there because they said if you delay a year, it will throw off the seven-year ramp up that the governor had proposed and what they would argue is that it would cost everyone more money.”

Superintendent John Deasy said in his budget report that the district should continue to find creative solutions to address fixed cost and long term liability issues.

“The District must remain vigilant, agile and resilient. There must be adequate on-going funding for all continuing expenditures, such as salaries and benefits for permanent employees, associated with any new initiatives or investments,” he said.

The steep payments leave school districts wondering how they’re going to balance their budgets, afford employee raises and reduce class size.

According to Meyers it’s a harsh reality, especially after the new school funding measure seemed to finally bring good news. “They were excited about the Local Control Funding Formula, the promise of new resources. [But] this increase, for a lot of districts eats away at most or all of that increase,” he said.

Lawyers for the plaintiffs responded by calling the request a “sham,” arguing that the measure, AB 375, would do nothing to address dismissal and tenure laws that protect problem teachers and deny students a quality education — a guarantee of the state Constitution. The unions named in the case, Vergara v. California, are the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers.

“AB 375 has no impact on the legal claims” in the case, said Marcellus Antonio McRae, a lawyer for the plaintiffs. “Even worse, AB 375 does nothing to protect California’s children in the classroom.”

The bill before Brown would establish new protocols for dismissing teachers. But the plaintiffs contend that it would do nothing to change state laws that they contend give little weight to teacher quality in decisions regarding employment.

Critics of AB 375 also say passage would make it more difficult for school districts to remove teachers who sexually or physically abuse students.

The lawsuit is aimed at amending one law that grants tenure after just two years of teaching, three laws governing the rules of dismissal and one that invokes a last-in-first-out protocol for staff reductions.

Barring a decision by the court to throw the case out, a trial is scheduled to start in late January.

Previous Posts: First Hearing for Massive Lawsuit, Landmark Suit Inches Forward,
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See also: LA Times

Brown’s plan to give struggling school districts like LAUSD, which have higher numbers of low-income and English language learner students, higher funding than more successful districts, has divided Democrats in the California legislature. Listen here:

“It’s the single greatest education policy shift in the last 35 years in California,” Deasy told LA School Report on Thursday. “It’s really brilliant by the Governor in so many ways.”

The new formula would raise LAUSD’s per-student funding level by $4,156 within a few years — an increase of over 50 percent above the current level. However, the proposal must be approved by the State Legislature first.

Funding for all schools was already expected to increase significantly, thanks to a growing economy and the passage of Proposition 30. The passage of Proposition 39, which taxes out-of-state corporations to pay for solar energy, could also make for a big windfall for public schools.

Superintendent Deasy was quick to caution that the full benefits of the plan wouldn’t be seen for a few years. “It won’t happen immediately,” he said. “but if this formula is able to be protected exactly how it is, by year three, we wont have structural deficit.”

If it doesn’t pass, he said, “we’re back to a very, very negative place.”

“It’s a relatively straight forward proposition to say, ‘Give us more money,'” said USC political science professor Dan Schnur. “Governor Brown’s proposal just made the discussion a lot more complicated.”

Previous posts: Deasy Praises Brown Budget Proposal; UTLA, LAUSD Prep for Prop. 30 Budget Battle; Board Restores 10 Days, Rejects Charter Proposal