The current financial crisis at the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District is a concern to all members of our community. However, in fact, this is not a new crisis. The school district has been struggling with this problem for most of the last two decades. Why?

California's slip from 5th to 41st in education funding began in 1978. Over the past two decades, because of inadequate funding from the state, the Santa monica-Malibu Unified school district instituted significant program cuts. To avoid further cuts, the District began going to the voters for significant new revenue via a small parcel tax increase in the mid 1980’s. This parcel tax has been consistently renewed by the voters.

Unfortunately the District was never able to ask the voters for enough to truly meet the need. California’s two-thirds vote requirement for ballot measure approval made these requests of the voters necessarily cautious and conservative.

These same shortfalls led the City to begin providing financial assistance to a strapped School District also in the mid 1980’s. That assistance took a dramatic step forward when the City provided one million dollars in annual support in 1990. That annual support has grown to over two million dollars today.

Still, even with the voter approved parcel tax and city support, the School District was only able to keep its excellent program intact by relying on new revenue from growing enrollment each year. When this year’s enrollment growth came up short, the District became unable to fund its programs.

This crisis was inevitable. With facilities limited, we have nearly reached the limit of potential enrollment growth and the end of the new revenue that growth brings. If the crisis had not hit this year, it nevertheless would have hit us soon.

Just as living in a built-out city has focused us on sustainability, we must as a community now design a new plan to fund sustainable top quality public education.

The education, health and welfare of the children of this community is an elemental obligation of every member of this community and should be a priority of each of its institutions.

We urge the Santa Monica City Council and the School Board to provide the leadership necessary to transform the current crisis in school funding into opportunity - the opportunity to assure the financial health of the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District and with it the health and welfare of the children of this community for the foreseeable future.

We urge the City of Santa Monica and the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to create a new partnership for our children, and to include in this partnership our parents, our local business community, and other community members. This partnership begins with the recognition that, while we have several institutions, we are one community.

This partnership should recognize that the City has diverse revenue streams and greater capability to produce new revenue than does the School District. On the other hand, the School District has land and facilities that could meet important needs in the community. The resources of each of our institutions, when necessary and with appropriate caveats, should be made available to assure the well-being of the other and the community members they serve.

Specifically, we urge the City of Santa Monica to:

• Immediately ensure one-time funding to remedy the near term revenue shortfall of the School District.
• Direct its staff to develop alternative approaches whereby the City of Santa Monica can help assure the ongoing financial health of the School District for the foreseeable future. These approaches are likely to include both ongoing City financial support and measures to place before the voters, including a renewal of the current parcel tax.
• Work together with the Santa Monica Malibu Education Foundation and the Santa Monica business community to build a supplemental resource base for important programs for the children of our community. These resources should provide for program enhancements and should not be relied upon for baseline program needs.

We urge the Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District to:

• Take the necessary steps to analyze and reform its budgeting and management practices as needed to ensure the fiscal soundness of our schools and as a result assuring educational excellence.
• Reopen discussions with the City with respect to the availability of school land and facilities to meet broader community needs including child care and recreation needs.
• Work together with all members of the community to devise long-term sustainable practices for educational excellence.
• Approach the City of Malibu for its participation in each of these efforts.

We commit ourselves to work constructively with all other interested parties – the city, the schools, business, and the public – to ensure long-term funding solution/s that enable our schools to deliver the high quality programs that all children deserve.

Lastly, both the City and the District, and all voters, should do whatever possible to make the State Government in Sacramento live up to its responsibilities to fund public education at a level that befits the wealth and satisfies the needs of California.

United for excellence in public education,