Vantage Point: ‘The Year of Education’: Keeping the dream alive

Rather than “The Year of Education Reform,” as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger once declared 2008 would be, we now find ourselves in the fight of our lives to prevent 2008 from becoming “The Year of an Education Lost.”

Proposition 98, public education’s minimum funding guarantee, would be suspended once again—for the second time in four years—under the governor’s budget proposal. The resulting cuts in funding would devastate the investment schools have made over the years in programs that have resulted in stronger classroom instruction and improved student achievement. Per-pupil funding would be reduced from its current, already unacceptable, level. There would be cuts in a wide range of effective programs that our students, teachers and administrators rely on: class size reduction, special education, child development, K-12 revenue limits, nutrition, to name just a few. If enacted, this budget would force us to retreat to a bare-bones schooling that would surely leave children behind.

Responsibility for the budget burden lies squarely at the feet of the governor and the Legislature, not on the backs of the children of California. The voters elected our state government leaders to move the state forward in a 21st century economy, but those leaders have failed. They have failed to invest in education at a level that prepares our children to compete for jobs in a global economy. They have failed to tell the people of California the truth about state revenues.

In Ronald Reagan’s first year as governor in 1967, he plugged a hole in the $5 billion budget of that era with a billion-dollar tax hike—a record at the time. More recently, Pete Wilson—Schwarzenegger’s political mentor—faced a $14 billion hole in a $43 billion general fund when he took office in 1991. Wilson raised taxes by $7 billion and accompanied that with prudent, prioritized cuts to balance the budget.

Where is such leadership today? Where is the candor and intellectual honesty our children deserve? The governor and the Legislature owe it to the future of our state to end the boom-and-bust budget cycle by coming before the voters with a plan that creates a stable funding source for a public education system that educates our children in a way that meets the needs of California.

As we move forward, I implore each of you to become active advocates for the children of this state. We can’t get the job done at board meetings only; it is going to take a different commitment to get those in Sacramento to feel the pressure from our communities, cities and counties. We, as the largest group of elected officials in the state, need to speak with one voice, one agenda—and that agenda is to provide a high-quality, 21st century education for all our children. We need you to become involved now. Your children and grandchildren are counting on you.