The Funding Gap

With Granite Bay and East Roseville’s higher real estate values, the Eureka Union School District (EUSD) schools must be well funded, right?

Wrong! EUSD falls well below funding levels for the average school district in California – and even nationally, compared to other states. It is this funding gap that your partnership with ESF works to bridge.

Why does this funding gap happen?  In short, our district is “caught in the middle”; here’s how.

• All but about 6% of the approximately 1000 California public school districts receive a baseline level of funding known as “revenue limit” funding.  Districts in this category get about the same limited amount of money per student attending.
• The other 60 districts are located in extreme high property tax wealth areas, so high that they are placed by state law in a special category (oddly called “basic aid”) that allows these districts to keep a direct percentage of their property taxes back for their schools.

EUSD is in a higher-wealth area, but NOT high enough to qualify for the “basic aid” category – so we operate under the “revenue limit” rules as most other California districts do.

Additional funds can be had from the state – known as “categorical program” funds – but as these are mostly targeted for districts that have significant economic and/or educational needs.  As our district is relatively well-off with high-performing students, we qualify for only a few of these categorical program funds.

So in short, districts like ours located in higher (but not highest) wealth areas get caught in the middle – not wealthy enough to qualify for keeping more of our property taxes, but too high-performing to qualify for additional, need-based funding. Districts such ours stay strong only by finding other sustainable resources, such as private foundation funding through ESF.

There are other trends in funding to know about, and none are good news.

• During the period of greatest local housing growth (1997-2002), EUSD benefited from one-time payment of additional money, called “mitigation fees”, that builders were mandated to pay the district to help with the expanding need for elementary education. But Granite Bay is now mostly built out, so we can’t count on these funds anymore.
• That building out reveals another trend – our district’s declining enrollment.  From a peak of 4200 students, our maturing area reflects a reduction in new students coming into the district and a trending down of district enrollment toward 3400. As public schools are paid per attending student, district revenues drop with declines in enrollment, even as many costs of operating schools for fewer students remain fixed.
• A parcel tax – a community tax levied on all property owners to directly fund school district needs – is another idea often raised. Its appeal lies in creating a stable, additional source of local funding, and in the appreciation that strong local schools help everyone in the community in attracting businesses and supporting real estate values. In the current economic circumstances, however, building support for a new tax is a tough uphill climb.

What we can do: Take Control!

With the current political gridlock in Sacramento, it is unreasonable to count on public funding formulas and amounts changing for the better.  But we can take control of our own destiny to preserve superior quality education. The choice is in our hands.

Thanks for your support of ESF – and being our partner in education.