Brown budget will spare schools if voters extend tax hikes

Newly inaugurated Governor Jerry Brown seems to be promising to spare K-12 schools from further deep budget cuts, but only if voters extend a series of higher income taxes in a special election.

From the Sacramento Bee:

Gov. Jerry Brown will spare K-12 schools from further drastic cuts in his budget – so long as voters extend higher income taxes in a special election, according to sources familiar with his proposal.

The tradeoff wouldn’t cure education ills, and many districts would still face another year of fewer school days and larger class sizes. But it could avert even deeper cuts after years of school rollbacks and help Brown galvanize powerful education support for tax hikes in a June special election.