California Insider

In the latest chapter in the battle of out-of-state senators and would-be presidents, John Kerry is scheduled to be in LA today to express his opposition to Prop. 75, the paycheck protection initiative. We're also hearing that while McCain was here the other day endorsing Schwarzenegger's agenda he cut an ad for the governor's campaign team.

Declining enrollment at LA Unified is bad news for district administrators in the short term, because they will get less money from the state while dealing with fixed costs that won't decline as quickly. But in the long term it is probably good news for the state. Most of the enrollment decline is coming in the elementary grades. That's confirmation that California's school-age population is about to level off, if not slowly decline. If this happens as the economy -- and tax revenues -- continue to grow, it will be easier for the state to increase per-student spending on the schools.