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At least 500 parents, teachers and community leaders from Berkeley joined thousands of other people in Sacramento on Monday to urge the governor to make public schools a top priority when decided how to spend the state’s estimated $13 billion budget surplus. 

“California enjoys the richest economy in the nation, but our schools are confronting a terrible funding crisis that is not of local making, and the solution must be statewide,” Berkeley parent and PTA Council member Simone Young said during the rally, according to a copy of the speech provided to the Daily Planet. 

“We call on all Californians to make sure that our state is not only the first in wealth, but also first in educational opportunity.” 

The timing of Monday’s huge rally was intentional. Next Monday, Gov. Gray Davis plans to release his revised state budget plan, including his proposals for spending the surplus estimated by the Legislature’s budget analyst as up to $13 billion over two years. 

The Democratic governor’s revised 

budget is the real start to legislative budget negotiations for the new fiscal year that starts on July 1. 

Preparing for those talks, the Senate passed a preliminary $92.8 billion budget proposal Monday that could grow to a record $100 billion with Davis’ revised revenue figures next week.  

Monday’s rally at the Capitol – attendance was estimated at around 8,000 people – was organized by the California Teachers Association and included representatives from around the state. Among the crowd were hundreds of Berkeleyans, who rode up on six school buses and dozens of private vehicles. 

Mark Coplan, president of the Berkeley PTA Council and a lead organizer of local participation in the rally, said he was pleased by the event, particularly the response to a Berkeley-led petition effort. A new organization called “Advocates for Public Schools,” has created a petition that calls for the state to help provide “fair pay” for teachers, fund ongoing teacher training and parent involvement, finance academic support programs and allow districts greater flexibility in how they use certain portions of state-allocated funds. 

As of Sunday night, the group had collected at least 1,000 signatures, Coplan said. Between 2,000 and 3,000 people from other parts of the state signed on Monday, and thousands of petitions were distributed to the crowd to take home. 

Berkeley’s delegation included a wide range of school, city and community representatives. Four of the five elected school board members and the student representative were at the rally, as were the mayor and two councilmembers. The Berkeley Federation of Teachers also was represented with union leaders and teachers from the district. 

The local group was invited to participate in the rally, and Coplan and Young spoke to the crowd to tell them of their petition efforts. 

Young said she hopes to governor really listened to what was said during the event. 

“If he expects people to vote for him (for another term or for another office), he better do something now,” she told the Daily Planet. “He really needs to listen to the people, and I hope that the speeches today helped make him more aware. Otherwise, teachers aren’t going to put up with it, and parents aren’t going to put up with it. 

“He needs to remember what his platform was going in, and we want him to put the money where his mouth is.” 

The California School Boards Association, whose 5,000 members are the locally elected board members at the state’s nearly 1,000 school districts, held its annual legislative conference Monday with lobbying also aimed at increasing school funding. 

Many board members also attended the rally on the Capitol lawn. 

Public schools are certain to get a hefty increase in funding. Davis told the California State Parent-Teacher Association convention Saturday that he will double the school funding increase he proposed in January.  

He would not give specific figures. His January budget proposals included $28.2 billion for schools in the 2000-01 fiscal year, a $1.8 billion increase from this fiscal year.  

“What really matters is what happens when the governor releases his revised budget,” Coplan said. “We’re talking about money that’s going to be there, and we want to see more of it spent on education.” 

The Senate budget plan approved Monday by a 27-11 vote includes $1.3 billion for public schools above the governor’s January figure.  

Davis maintains the state is getting very close to the national average in per-pupil spending, which can be measured several different and complicated ways.  

The CTA disagrees and insists the state is $1,200-per-student below that average, based on 1997 National Education Association figures.  

The CTA has an initiative that would require the Legislature to increase taxes by billions of dollars to bring per-pupil spending to the national average. The CTA is expected to submit signatures to try to qualify for the November ballot this week.  

The initiative could split the education community, which otherwise is united in its desire for increased “discretionary” school funding, meaning money that districts can use for their individual needs. Davis on Saturday promised a “very substantial amount” of discretionary funds in next week’s increase. 

Other major school groups would like to give the governor a chance to increase funding and are wary of the CTA initiative, said Kevin Gordon of the California Association of School Business Officials, the chief financial officers for the districts. 

“We have very serious reservations about asking voters to support a $5 billion tax increase when the revenues are there to get to the national average right now,” he said Monday. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.