Gov. says owes schools money

In that same Mercury News story (see below) the governor said the government still owes California schools money: In a wide-ranging discussion, the governor also asserted that he wants to work out a multiyear plan to repay schools a $3 billion debt, a longstanding source of controversy. "Does the state of California owe them the additional $3 billion or whatever it is? Of course, that's the way Proposition 98 is written,'' Schwarzenegger said, referring to the state's school funding guarantee. "Our dispute was never should they get the money or not. I promised them the money.'' The disagreement, he said, was over when the money would be returned. California Teachers Association President Barbara Kerr Wednesday night said she was flabbergasted by the governor's acknowledgment that the state owes schools the money. "I'm sort of at a loss for words,'' Kerr said in a phone interview from Washington, D.C. "I'm glad that after this amount of time we're moving forward.''