Student Success at Stake as Governor Proposes Even More Education Funding Cuts
West Sacramento, Calif. - At a time when schools are already facing cuts at levels never before seen in California’s history, Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed to cut an additional $680 million from Proposition 98 funding. If enacted, this would be the fourth cut to education in less than a year. The Governor’s latest May budget revision would require that districts make drastic cuts before the end of the fiscal year – which has only four weeks remaining.
In addition, the Governor is now proposing to reduce funding for home-to-school transportation by $315 million this year and another $389 million next year. He proposes to use these funds, which come from the Public Transportation Account, for debt service on transit bonds. This would reduce funding for school transportation by 65 percent, making it by far the largest cut proposed for any state program.
"The Governor’s budget proposals guarantee that schools will be forced to make further devastating reductions within classrooms that will inevitably affect the success of our students both now and in the future," said Paula S. Campbell, CSBA President. "With less than a month left in the school year, the Governor asserts that districts can find a way to cut more than $1.4 billion or $235 per student. This is an unfathomable request given the magnitude of cuts already made.”
While some officials have claimed that federal stimulus funds will backfill reductions to education funding, dampening the effects of these catastrophic cuts, that is simply not true. After the governor’s proposed budget revision, stimulus funds will backfill less than half of the cuts schools have endured since last September.
“In poll after poll, voters have adamantly expressed their view that investing in our children’s education is a top priority, yet we continue to be on the chopping block,” CSBA Executive Director, Scott P. Plotkin said. “It is mind-boggling to imagine what these additional cuts will do to future generations. We can only hope that this will serve as a wake-up call to our state leaders that it is time to do something about the state’s irrational funding system for public education.”