Schools for Sound Finance and Basic Aid Districts

Schools for Sound Finance is an independent organization founded by a group of Basic Aid school districts about 30 years ago to share information to help them manage their districts.

Marsha Sutton is an education writer.

“It’s a support group for Basic Aid districts,” said Ron Bennett, whose own organization, School Services of California [link: www.sscal.com ], is contracted by Schools for Sound Finance for consulting and legislative representation. “We are their lobbyists and advocates in the capital.”

Over the past few years, the number of Basic Aid districts has increased sizably, Bennett said. The switch happens from Revenue Limit to Basic Aid automatically when property taxes go up faster than the funding the state pays to districts.

“And over the past seven or eight years, property taxes have been going gangbusters, up until two years ago,” he explained.

For example, in the San Dieguito Union High School District, which just became a Basic Aid district this year, there were years when the property tax went up 10 or 12 percent and the revenue limit went up only three or four percent, Bennett said.

All school districts in the state were initially guaranteed at least $120 per student per year by the California constitution, regardless of the amount of local property taxes, Bennett explained.

“That $120 was called the basic aid amount,” he said. “So the districts that only got that were called Basic Aid districts.”

Related Links: Basic Aid districts offer to give up their “fair share” of the money

During the previous budget crisis in 2003, the $120 per student was suspended and is now no longer part of the law, Bennett said. Although they are still referred to as Basic Aid districts, the state sometimes calls them “excess property tax” districts. Bennett calls them “community funded” districts. “But it all means the same thing,” he said.

Although membership is voluntary, only a handful of Basic Aid districts in the state do not belong to Schools for Sound Finance, Bennett said.

If the recent proposal for Basic Aid districts to give back money to the state in proportion to the cuts imposed upon Revenue Limit districts becomes law, all Basic Aid districts will be obligated to take the hit, whether they are members of Schools for Sound Finance or not.

Basic Aid districts in San Diego County are congregated in North County’s coastal region and include the school districts of Del Mar Union, Rancho Santa Fe, Solana Beach, Cardiff, Encinitas Union, San Dieguito Union High and Carlsbad Unified.

This column originally appeared in Rancho Santa Fe Review, an SDNN media partner. Marsha Sutton is a freelance education writer who covers education issues in San Diego County. She can be reached at: SuttComm@san.rr.com.

Tags: basic aid, revenue, san dieguito union high school district, school services of california, SDNN

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