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The California Department of Education praised lawmakers for rejecting a proposal to limit the State Superintendent Tony Thurmond’s fiscal oversight authority, while not directly answering whether Thurmond plans to assume the Sacramento County Office of Education’s authority over the Sacramento City Unified School District.
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In an email to The Sacramento Bee, the department said Thurmond will continue working with the district and county office toward a local resolution, but did not address the rumors raised by the California County Superintendents association in its Saturday statement that Thurmond may take over the county office as early as this week.
“Superintendent Thurmond remains focused on ensuring that Sacramento City Unified has a credible path to fiscal solvency while protecting students and avoiding the devastating consequences of receivership,” a department spokesperson wrote.
“The district is proposing difficult cuts to address its long-term fiscal challenges. There is more to do, but Superintendent Thurmond is committed to giving the district the opportunity to see that work through.”
The department’s response followed a failed push last week at the Capitol to curb Thurmond’s power to take over county fiscal oversight, after he put Sacramento County Office of Education on notice over its handling of Sac City Unified’s fiscal crisis. The proposal would have required another layer of approval before the state superintendent could take over a county office’s responsibilities.
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State and district officials pushed back on the proposal, with Thurmond arguing that one local dispute did not justify rewriting statewide law and that any change should go through the “normal legislative process,” with public hearings and input.
“We appreciate the Legislature’s choice not to rush an unnecessary statewide change in law while local discussions are actively underway,” the spokesperson said. “Changing the law in the middle of those discussions would have undermined efforts to reach a local resolution.”
District officials have said the state taking over the county office’s fiscal oversight authority would be different from receivership because it would not trigger a state loan. Julien Lafortune, an education finance expert at the Public Policy Institute of California, meanwhile, said such a move would still amount to a loss of local control, potentially giving the state greater ability — and political responsibility — to make difficult fiscal decisions.
Thurmond is set to meet with county office and district officials again Tuesday over the district’s fiscal crisis, as it faces a $222 million structural deficit. District officials project it will run out of cash in February without the projected relief tied to the agreement the district made with its teachers union that was rescinded by the county office.
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