Lawmakers suspend fiscal oversight
Blog by John Fensterwald/ Educated Guess
Superintendents,
business officers, and budget consultants are expressing bewilderment over
demands and restrictions in the education trailer bill – AB 114 – that they say
could throw already financially stressed school districts into serious
financial jeopardy. School Services of California, which advises many districts
on financial issues, has called on Gov. Jerry Brown to veto one particularly
worrisome section of the bill that suspends fiscal oversight by county offices
of education for the coming year. In adopting the provision, the Legislature
“has eclipsed all of its previous low standards for ethics and integrity,” the
company wrote on its website. The 100-page trailer bill was published Wednesday
morning, 12 hours after Democrats in the Legislature passed it without
discussion. Except perhaps for a handful of insiders, educators had no idea
what was in it. (more...)