A Message to Our Community

The Governor recently announced a half-billion dollars in mid-year cuts to education, and his plan to cut $4.8 billion from education for the 2008-2009 school year has been widely reported.

Some lawmakers are claiming that these cuts won’t hurt schools this year.

Unfortunately you can’t cut a half billion dollars out of public education without real sacrifice both short term and in the long term.

While the cuts target anticipated “unexpended balances” across a number of key education programs according to the legislation, these dollars should instead be reinvested toward the very purposes they were originally allocated to address.

Whether it is the $37 million cut for class size reduction, the $22.4 million reduction in preschool and child care, $1.6 million for pupil testing or the tens of millions in funding stripped from other parts of the education budget, it all adds up to a disinvestment in public education.

Our classrooms and schools, already saddled with $507 million of the reductions this year, should not bear a disproportionate burden of the total $1.3 billion in mid-year cuts.

2008 was designated to be the year to begin a serious conversation about greater investment and reform in public schools. More than two dozen studies confirm the pathetic investment California makes in education. Today’s action begins a tragic march backward.

We, in education, stand against these cuts, and instead propose finding a revenue source – closing tax loop holes as well as rethinking former tax cuts, for example – as a way to fully fund quality education for every child, in every classroom, every day.

You may reach me at sheilaj@acoe.org.