EDITORIAL CUT BURDENS, TOO STATE SHOULD GIVE SCHOOLS MORE FREEDOM TO MANAGE TIGHT BUDGETS.

CALIFORNIA public schools are bracing for budget cuts this year as the state struggles to fill a budget hole that could be as large as $35 billion. Schools won't escape cutbacks - nor should they expect to - but they deserve more help than the governor proposes to give them.

Legislative Analyst Elizabeth Hill has made an important observation about school cuts that deserves more attention:

Hill points out that part of the governor's spending package includes a $1.1 billion - roughly 3.7 percent - across-the-board cut to schools. But because many school programs are mandated by the state, district officials don't have much discretion over how to accommodate those cuts. The likely effect is that districts would still have to meet all the state mandates - just with 3.7 percent less money.

It makes little sense not to reduce the burdens that create costs but to tell districts to reduce those costs.

Why not release districts from nonessential mandates, thus giving them a free hand to decide where cuts should be made?

Releasing districts from some mandates would strengthen local control while allowing districts to make budget-cutting decisions based on the desires in the local community, not Sacramento.