Malibu city guides and community organizers urge residents to attend and speak at the LA County Office of Education’s (LACOE) upcoming hearing on Malibu’s Independent School District Petition, due to take place virtually via Zoom on Saturday, September 18 at 9 a.m. am
Two weeks before the meeting, a new analysis from LA County painted a difficult picture for pro-independence advocates, many of whom have been fighting for a Malibu school district for well over a decade.
An analysis of the county’s tax revenue found that creating an independent school district in Malibu “would have a material negative impact on the tax health of the remaining Santa Monica USD.”
This came as no surprise since the Malibu labor theory was that Malibu taxpayers should send millions of dollars to Santa Monica for at least 10 years.
The county’s new financial analysis, released late Friday, September 3rd, did not contain any recommendations on how to resolve the financial problems. Santa Monica has asked for a 50-year contract, before Malibu officials warn that it could move $ 4 billion in property tax revenues from Malibu to Santa Monica over those five decades.
The financial report stated that enabling Malibu to become independent would “result in a significant loss of revenue for the remaining district, both in terms of one-off losses from asset allocation and ongoing losses in funding per ADA.”
The impact on Santa Monica was “disproportionate given the number of students who would stay in the district compared to the number of students who would become part of the proposed Malibu USD”.
“The funding disparity between the two districts would be large and the losses that the remaining Santa Monica USD would incur would undoubtedly impact the educational programs currently offered to students within the current Santa Monica-Malibu USD,” the report concluded .
The analysis does not provide a financial formula to make Santa Monica complete, and apparently leaves that to the LACOE subcommittee at its September 18 meeting.
The school’s supporters in Malibu did not give up the fight. Malibu-based Wade Major, who has spoken out in favor of a breakup in the past, shared his written comments with LACOE with the Malibu Times ahead of the meeting on Saturday. This included the refutation of three of the district’s “Nine Conditions” for independence: insufficient schooling, lack of a community of their own, and the potential for “ethnic discrimination or segregation”.
Major argued that the school population had decreased due to the Woolsey Fire, COVID-19, district mismanagement, and normal population fluctuation.
Defending Malibu’s argument that there is an “essential community identity” in Malibu that is not shared with Santa Monica, he wrote that “Malibu is a unique and special place and everyone who has tried will spend a lot of time here Know that: “and added,” It remains the only non-contiguous district in the state, an awkward amalgamation of a small rural parish and a distant, discrete larger urban parish ten times as large and sixteen times as large. “
He also disproved the third point – concern for an inclusive environment and the promotion of “racial or ethnic discrimination”.
“… The respective student bodies in Malibu and Santa Monica have existed as separate, self-contained, and discreet bodies for nearly 30 years,” wrote Major. “Since Malibu High School was founded in 1992, Malibu students have followed their K-12 path exclusively in Malibu and Santa Monica students have followed their K-12 path exclusively in Santa Monica. The racial, cultural, and ethnic makeup of schools in each community will be exactly the same after unification as it is now. Apart from the district administration and the aggregated statistics on the composition of the district, nothing will change. “
The county’s financial analysis followed Malibu’s parents’ uproar over an SMMUSD video aimed at fueling opposition to the divorce.
Malibu officials said they were filing a complaint with the California Fair Political Practices Commission over the video they believed violated state laws against the use of taxpayers’ money to influence elections.
The U.S. and state constitutions also prohibit the use of taxpayers money to influence elections, calling this a violation of the First Amendment’s prohibition on forced speech.
The video cost the taxpayer $ 8,370, KBUU News reported.
On Tuesday September 14th, SMMUSD uploaded two more pro-breakup videos on its YouTube channel in which Samohi students urge parents to speak out against Malibu independence on Saturday.
Further information and participation options can be found at malibucity.org/musd
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