More on State Budget Leaks

As a previous post noted, this is the season in which there are leaks about the governor’s upcoming budget proposal for 2013-14 which will be presented officially in early January.  Given the timing, the budget is already prepared, or 99% prepared.

So far, there has been no leak about higher ed.  However, there is an item today in the Sacramento Bee about K-12 (a much larger chunk of the state budget) that suggests the governor will propose revamping the K-12 allocation formulas to give more assistance to disadvantaged children and districts with concentrations of such children. He pushed for changes in that direction last year so this goal appears to be one in which the governor has a special interest.

That fact suggests that UC would be well advised to emphasize in its PR and communications with the governor such things as the proportion of first generation college students, transfer programs with community colleges, and any projects that involve working with school districts to improve outcomes of the disadvantaged.

The Sacramento Bee article is at:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/26/5076011/jerry-brown-pushes-new-funding.html

Somewhat related is another article in the Bee dealing with the issues facing assembly speaker John Pérez.  We noted in an earlier post that an initiative has been filed to raise tobacco taxes for UC and CSU scholarships.  It appeared to have some serious backers, unlike many initiatives that are filed but go nowhere.  The Bee article notes at the end that “middle class college scholarships” are a priority of the speaker.  You can read it at:
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/12/26/5075997/californians-to-watch-john-a-perez.html

And talking about college, if you ever wondered precisely how the Electoral College worked, here is how it operates, at least in California, in conveniently short excerpts.  (The actual full session ran an hour and a quarter.)
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRwW4cl1Dpc?feature=player_detailpage]