With Parcel Tax, Culver City Attempts To Slow State's Damage To Schools
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Measure EE supporters rally outside Farragut Elementary School on Tuesday.
(photo by Mark Evitt)
Carlos Valverde can guarantee eight "yes" votes for Measure EE. He and his wife Thelma are both supporters, as are both sets of their parents, plus Carlos' brother and his wife.
It makes sense that the Valverdes support Measure EE, a parcel tax that will raise about $6 million over five years for Culver City schools. Carlos is an English teacher at Culver City High School, and Thelma is the school's college counselor. They are both life-long residents of Culver City, and their families have stayed in the city. The Valverdes now have two school-age daughters in the Culver City School District.
"This is a very important issue, and it's very personal to me, too," Carlos Valverde said. "It is part of my responsibility as a citizen to support the measure. I have spent my entire life in Culver City, and schools are always important to support."
Campaign staffers are optimistic the measure, which requires the approval of two-thirds of the voters, will pass.
At a final strategy meeting the week before the election, school board member and Measure EE campaign co-chair Scott Zeidman praised Culver City residents.
"The community is rallying around us like you wouldn't believe," Zeidman said. "They're saying, 'Please, tax me.' And in this day and age, with people asking to be taxed, that shows what a great community Culver City is."
The measure calls for a $96 annual tax on each parcel for five years. It has wide support from residents and officials throughout Culver City. The City Council unanimously endorsed the measure, and there is no formal opposition to the tax. State Sen. Curren Price and Assemblywoman Karen Bass support EE, as does L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas.
But while there may be support for the measure, its passing is not guaranteed. Of the 20,000 registered voters in Culver City, only 12 to 13 percent will vote in a local election like this one. With only 2,500 votes likely to be cast, each carries a lot of weight.
Holding a hand-made "Vote Yes on EE" sign, parent and Culver City Middle School booster club president Bonnie Wacker said the EE campaign had done all it could to raise awareness.
"If it's not going to pass with all of this effort, then it never will," Wacker said. "We really put our hearts and souls behind it. I'm cautiously optimistic."
The district desperately needs the funding Measure EE will provide. Due to California state budget cuts, Culver City has cut $6 million over the past two years out of a school district budget that started at $50 million. Another $3 million will have to be cut next year.
There is no contingency plan if Measure EE doesn't pass, but any additional cuts will be even harder to absorb.
"If this doesn't pass, I'm sure it's going to hit every classroom and every student in the district," school board member Jessica Beagles-Roos said. "At this point we've made so many cuts already. I can't imagine where we're going to start. It's agonizing."
The parcel tax only provides $1.2 million in funding, so with $3 million in cuts necessary, some more programs will have to go. But according to Zeidman, $1.8 million in cuts are possible, while $3 million would cut too much or be unbearable.
"Without this passing, we can't beg borrow or steal enough to make up what has to be cut," Zeidman said.
Cuts have come because California faced a $26 billion budget deficit over the summer and balanced it by cutting $6 billion in funding to schools. This was on top of $8.6 billion that had come in February.
While parcel taxes and bond measures (bond measures are used for capital improvements to schools) have long provided sources of funding for schools, the measures on ballots this November are a direct response to cuts from California.
Measure EE says in part, "To protect the quality of education in Culver City schools from deep state budget cuts by providing stable local funding ..."
Culver City residents have lost their faith in Sacramento to come to the aid of schools.
"I think everyone is tired of spending money in Sacramento," Zeidman said. "It gets filtered 10 times over, and you see pennies on the dollar. Here every single penny goes to Culver City schools."
"We can't rely on the state any more," Gianna Gray, a parent with boys in second and sixth grade, said. "They've cut too many things out of our curriculum. We have to make a stand, and we have to do what we can to try and raise as much money as possible."
Culver City is by all accounts a dynamic district, with arts and technology and language immersion elementary schools and a high school with API scores that have increased in each of the last five years.
"It's really sad that we've built our schools up to this really great level and we have good quality programs and fabulous parents and families and we're hung out to dry by the state," Wacker said. It's a complete travesty. Schools are the future of our country, and our kids. That should be the last thing you cut, in my opinion."
Class sizes at the high school are larger now, and there is less money for field trips and staff development. Schools are dirtier because janitorial services have been cut. Yearbook at the middle school is now an after-school activity instead of a class, and the computer lab will likely be closed next year.
While Measure EE will stop the bleeding, it also won't bring about any long-term change to how funding for schools is distributed in California. The state provides about 75 percent of each district's budget.
"This is a Band-Aid more than anything else," Carlos Valverde said. "I don't think communities should have to pay a parcel tax. We really need more support from the state. We should be doing fine."
For now, a Band-Aid will have to do. And Madeline Ehrlich, EE campaign co-chair and former school board member, likes her chances.
"My feeling is when all is said and done, we have really done as much as we can," she said.
