[BHS etree] SUPT: Associated Press on California Budget Cuts

[bhs at idiom.com]

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY to the etree, contact Mark Coplan
[mailto:Mark_Coplan at berkeley.k12.ca.us]

There have already been an outcry from taxpayers and educators around
the state in reaction to the Governor's proposed budget cuts,
specifically the $4.8 billion he proposes to cut from California
public schools. This Associated Press story shares some reactions, and
we expect to see another unified statewide reaction from the education
community in opposition to further cuts to education in the months
ahead. At tonight's school board meeting, Board President Selawsky
stated that it is clearly time for us to get on the busses once again,
and bring the message to the Governor that our public schools cannot
weather further budget cuts. Sacramento here we come.

Mark Coplan, BUSD Public Information Officer
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Calif. educators reeling by Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts

By JULIET WILLIAMS, Associated Press Writer

Thursday, January 10, 2008

(01-10) 18:07 PST SACRAMENTO, (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on
Thursday dealt a blow to educators, proposing $4.8 billion in cuts to
California's public schools and possibly restarting a fight that he
hoped had ended with the state's largest teachers union.

Education advocates vowed to fight the cuts, which Schwarzenegger
would accomplish by suspending the holy grail of California's
education system:
Proposition 98, the landmark school funding guarantee voters approved
in 1988.

"This is going to be one of the most painful, vocal, public, fierce
debates about education funding that we have ever seen," said Brian
Lewis, executive director of the California Association of School
Business Officials. "We are going to come out of the woodwork opposing
any suspension of 98 and any further undermining of this minimal
guarantee to kids."

Having to wield a budget ax over schools is a cruel irony for a
governor who just months ago promised he would dedicate 2008 to
wide-ranging education reforms in his "Year of Education."

"What a way to commence the Year of Education, by proposing to balance
the budget on the backs of the students in the state of California,"
said David Sanchez, president of the California Teachers Association.

Schwarzenegger proposed a nearly 10 percent cut to K-12 spending in
the fiscal year that starts this July - about $4.4 billion - as well
as $400 million in cuts that could take effect as soon as this spring.

Schwarzenegger sought to downplay the midyear cuts, noting that he
could have taken back as much as $1.4 billion in 2007-08 spending.
That, he said, "would have been devastating. We must protect our
children."

His plan was devastating enough, educators said.

"We're already at 43rd in the nation in per-pupil spending. We can't
sacrifice our economic future because we're in a bad budget year,"
said John Affeldt, managing attorney for Public Advocates, a law firm
that advocates for education equality.

In a national study released Wednesday, Education Week magazine gave
the state a D+ for its education financing system and reported that it
spends about $2,000 less per student than the national average, or
43rd among the states. Schwarzenegger's proposal would cut per pupil
spending by another $300 a year.

His plan contradicts the advice of his own education panel, which
recommended the state rewrite its school funding formula and add
another
$6 billion a year for its weakest students. The governor also noted in
his State of the State address Tuesday that California schools have a
third fewer teachers and half the school counselors than the national
average.

His plan would leave few places to cut besides teachers and school
staff, since about 90 percent of education spending goes to salaries.

Administration officials said the spending-cut proposal asks the
Legislature to find unspent money to minimize the effect this year.

"Schools will be largely unharmed in the current year," said Jeannie
Oropeza, a Department of Finance education budget manager.

Schwarzenegger's education secretary, David Long, said districts knew
midyear cuts were coming and have been preparing.

Local officials, however, said they did not know where the money would
come from.

"We can't stop educating kids or paying salaries in the middle of the
year. We still have to buy books and paper and clean our classrooms,"
said Ardella Dailey, superintendent of the Alameda Unified School
District.

California's schools, once among the highest achieving, rank below the
national average on nearly all academic measures.

Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said it also has
the most challenging students, more than half of whom come from poor
families and a third of whom do not speak English fluently. Its
population of 6 million students is higher than the total population
of more than half the states.

"The governor's budget takes a giant step backward. I fear that the
'Year of Education' will become the year of education evisceration,"
O'Connell said. "This budget will not help us close the achievement
gap that threatens the futures of our students and our state."

The California State University and University of California systems
also would see cuts of about $1.1 billion in the 2008-09 fiscal year.

California Faculty Association President Lillian Taiz said those cuts
would lead to "course reductions, increased class sizes and longer
times to graduation. The loss, in the end, would not only be dollars,
but the loss of the hope and optimism about the future that is an
intrinsic trait of a society committed to broad educational
opportunity."

Even some Republicans opposed the move to balance the budget by
suspending Proposition 98. Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Merced, said he would
fight it.

"After all the progress we have made in education, now the governor
wants to punish our kids because he didn't make the spending cuts he
needed to make last summer. I find it appalling," Denham said in a
statement.

Schwarzenegger had sought to repair his fractured relationship with
the education community in the wake of his disastrous special election
in 2005. The California Teachers Association spent more than $50
million then to defeat his slate of ballot initiatives, which included
a measure to cap state spending, partly rolling back Proposition 98.

And this year, some 400 of the neediest schools got the first payments
from a $2.9 billion legal settlement the governor reached with the CTA
after educators claimed he reneged on a budget deal he made shortly
after taking office.

That money is slated for additional teachers and teacher training.
Budget experts are divided over how much of that could be diverted to
other programs in a fiscal emergency.

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/01/10/state/n180720S
66.DTL


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Mark A. Coplan
Public Information Officer, BUSD
510-644-6320
Mark_Coplan at berkeley.k12.ca.us
Berkeley Unified School District
2134 Martin Luther King Jr. Way
Berkeley, Ca 94704-1180