Capitol Alert: Brown calls education funding 'a civil rights issue'

Gov. Jerry Brown this morning called education funding a civil rights issue, defending his proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies to reduce California's yawning budget deficit and to push more tax revenue to schools and public safety.

"We take from redevelopment and we put $1 billion into schools, that's a good thing, because we've got to make sure whatever we do, we give a chance to those who are coming along in the next generation," Brown said at a breakfast hosted by the California Legislative Black Caucus to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. "And that is a civil rights issue."

Brown made a similar, if less explicit, assertion in remarks to city officials the previous day, suggesting a developing line of argument.

"We know Latino and African American kids are way behind other kids," Brown said at a conference hosted by the League of California Cities, which opposes Brown's redevelopment proposal. "We know the poor districts are not as good as the wealthier districts, so I don't want to take more money from schools. I'd like to put more money into schools. So that's just where we are. And where do we get the money? Well, that's the rub. And this proposal I have is to basically restore what was before where the local property taxes go for local functions, whether it's fire or police or schools or whatever the cities and the counties are doing."

Brown at that luncheon invited city leaders who disagreed with him to stop by his office to talk.

"I invited 400 people to come over," he said this morning. "Only about 20 came, so I handled it."

Brown said the political landscape has become more polarized than when he was last governor, from 1975 to 1983. He also continued to remind audiences that the budget deficit is inherited.

"Boy things went downhill after I left," Brown said. "We started building prisons and stopped building colleges."

The Bee's Kevin Yamamura contributed to this report.