Skelton: Jerry Brown’s school plan bad for California middle class

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When Gov. Jerry Brown pitched his new school funding plan, he described it as a just way to make sure poor districts get adequate state funding.

‘Our future depends not on across-the-board funding, but in disproportionately funding those schools that have disproportionate challenges,’ he said.

In Monday’s column, George Skelton says the plan is actually not just at all.

‘How much income redistribution are Californians in the mood for?’ Skelton wrote. ‘In this new scheme of Gov. Jerry Brown’s, it isn’t only the rich getting robbed. It’s the middle class.’

Brown’s plan would send additional money to schools with more students that are poor, English learners or in foster homes. The problem is, Skelton said, the money comes out of the state’s big pot of education funding, leaving less for other schools.

‘Californians need to be pulling together as they struggle out of the great recession,’ he wrote. ‘Government shouldn’t be alienating the core middle class to benefit anyone.’

All of Skelton’s columns are here.

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