California Governor Jerry Brown as Robin Hood

George Skelton:

Now we know what Gov. Jerry Brown really cares about -- what gets him riled and raring to rumble.

"The battle of their lives," he promises opponents. "This is a cause."

When a governor bares his soul like that, not only is he waving a nasty stick, he's tacking up a big sign that reads, "Name your price."

Brown's passion: pouring more tax money into inner-city schools at the expense of the suburbs.

It's not that simple, of course. Nothing about California school finance is.

Not all urban districts would benefit from Brown's school funding redistribution scheme. Oakland Unified, for example. Brown's hometown, where he was mayor, would get shortchanged.

Oakland's schools would receive $228 less per pupil under his plan when fully implemented than under the current funding formula, according to the state education department. The governor's own budget office also shows Oakland as a loser.

So the governor might want to tweak his proposal to eliminate at least one unintended consequence.

Brown's plan would allot significantly more money for districts with large percentages of poor children -- those eligible for subsidized lunches -- and English learners. But that would mean less than otherwise for middle-class and better-off districts where the vast majority of kids speak English at home.

Among the 50 largest districts, more than half would be losers under Brown's plan, based on education department calculations.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at May 2, 2013 1:46 AM
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