Lawmakers' switch preserves school bus funding

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Parents and educators said they were relieved Thursday after state lawmakers changed their minds and voted against targeting school bus service in a midyear budget cut to education.

The move alters a $248 million school transportation spending cut lawmakers included in the state budget they passed last summer. The cut was to take effect automatically at the start of the year because tax revenue was running well behind projections, but many school districts objected.

Both houses of the Legislature approved the bill, sending it to Gov. Jerry Brown, who was expected to sign it.

"I'm so excited," Cinnamon Paula said after the vote. Paula, a parent of four, helped organize opposition to the cuts in the Southern Humboldt Unified School District, which covers 700 square miles in far Northern California.

"I think we would have lost a third of our school district," said Paula, who lives in Redway, about 200 miles north of San Francisco. "They would have had to be home-schooled or left the area because they couldn't have gotten to school."

She created a Facebook page focused on the transportation cuts, helped organize a protest trip last month to Sacramento attended by more than 200 parents, children and other North Coast residents, and arranged for opponents to email and telephone the governor's office every day.

Eliminating or significantly reducing bus service would have had the greatest effect on rural districts, where students often travel long distances to get to and from school. Lawmakers listened and said school districts can absorb the spending cut anywhere in their overall budgets.

The measure would take effect immediately if Brown signs it into law, but it would protect transportation funding only through the rest of the current school year. Brown is proposing to eliminate the funding in the coming fiscal year, which begins July 1.

The governor wants to switch to a formula that would replace nearly all school categorical programs, including home-to-school transportation.

Paula remains concerned about Brown's proposal, and her feelings are shared even in a much different school system.

"This transportation cut really got the attention of the community," said Edgar Zazueta, director of government relations for the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has the highest enrollment in the state.