Supporters of adequate school funding efforts around the nation would do well to keep close tabs on the budget battle brewing in California. Behind the complex machinations is a straightforward tale of a public figure breaking a funding promise to students, teachers and schools and moving aggressively to undermine a voter-approved, guaranteed floor under public schools and colleges.

In 1988, California voters passed that guarantee, known as Proposition 98, after schools and colleges suffered major funding cuts as a result of the state’s cap on property taxes. Faced with lean times, however, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and a coalition of education groups last year reached an agreement that would help the state balance its budget by temporarily suspending Proposition 98’s funding requirements. In exchange, Schwarzenegger promised to keep K-14 funding within $2 billion of levels mandated by the law and to restore funding as soon as the state economy improved.

“This Prop 98 funding will be restored as required by law and our agreement,” the governor said on Jan. 8, 2004. “Today, I am making that promise to our teachers and students.”

One year later, Schwarzenegger unveiled a 2005-06 budget plan that falls $3.1 billion short of his promise. Not only does Schwarzenegger fail to restore the $2 billion, even though state revenues are rising, but he also takes back a $300 million reserve fund for schools that was set up as part of the original deal and ignores the $800 million increase that a restored Proposition 98 would afford schools based on rising government receipts.

And the broken promises stay broken for years to come because Schwarzenegger would “rebase” the Proposition 98 guarantee at a permanently lower level. Estimates vary, but this single change could mean cuts of $620 per student or $15,500 out of every classroom, the California Federation of Teachers reports.

Budget woes in California already are getting national attention. A recent Rand Corp. study, for example, shows that California’s K-12 school system has fallen from its position as a national leader 30 years ago to its current ranking near the bottom in almost every category, including per-pupil funding and class size. Today, California has the second highest ratio of students per teacher in the nation, with five more students per class than the national average. And the latest “Quality Counts” report from Education Week and the Pew Charitable Trusts places California 44th in the nation in per-pupil funding. Its community colleges rank 46th in per-student funding.

“The most important point about education funding is not whether it meets the Proposition 98 promise,” says AFT vice president and CFT president Mary Bergan. “It’s whether California can expect to succeed educationally when it spends less per pupil than three-fourths of the other states.”