Ventura Cty, CA: "Sharp increases" in SPED kids; general enrollment "declining"

Sept 1, 2018, Camarillo, CA, Ventura County Star: Editorial: Schools face tough financial future https://www.vcstar.com/story/opinion/editorials/2018/09/01/editorial-schools-face-tough-financial-future/1164253002/ Taxpayers in the Ventura Unified School District can question what they got for the $125,000 it spent on “branding.” The district’s new logo looks generic, and its five-pillar promise is largely platitudes. But taxpayers can’t really quibble with the district’s motivations. California’s system of school funding is based on the number of students districts have, so they must do everything they can to keep and attract as many as possible. What our schools really need is not branding but a new funding system — and sooner rather than later. Sooner because of the elephant in the room that few districts like to talk about — rising pension costs. Add declining enrollment, growing special education expenses and the state’s inevitable next recession, and it’s not a pretty picture. “The state is stuck in a school funding paradox: Even though our schools have never had higher per-pupil spending levels, school districts face financial peril,” Joe Mathews wrote last month in his Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square…. Meanwhile, districts in Ventura County and elsewhere are seeing declining enrollments (meaning less funding) due to high housing costs (unaffordable for young families), dropping birth rates and stagnant immigration. The extreme here is the Ojai Valley Unified School District, which in June had to close Summit School after only 18 students re-enrolled. At the same time, many districts are seeing sharp increases in the number of students identified with disabilities, EdSource reported in March. Yet state and federal funding now covers only about 38 percent of special education costs, compared with 50 percent a decade ago, EdSource reported…