‘Tipping point’ may be near as more cuts loom
Education Coalition speaks out on impacts
Published: November 1, 2011
Several schools around California opened their doors to press conferences last month, inviting local media to hear from area representatives of the Education Coalition about the impacts of three years of budget cuts and fiscal threats that continue to grow.
The Ravenswood City School District in East Palo Alto hosted the first event Oct. 18. Chris Thomsen, a Sequoia Union High School District trustee and member of CSBA’s Delegate Assembly from Region 5, shared the stage with California State PTA President Carol Kocivar and other speakers representing the Education Coalition, which also includes employee groups and the Association of California School Administrators.
“The cuts we’ve already been forced to make to vital school programs and services in virtually every district in this state have been excruciating and devastating,” Thomsen said. “It’s become nearly impossible to continue providing the high-quality education our students need today and on which our future depends.”
A day later, CSBA Region 6 Director Priscilla Cox delivered a similar message in the Sacramento City Unified School District. A fifth of the districts in her six-county region “are at the brink of insolvency” through no fault of their own following three years of cuts in state public education funding, Cox said.
“We’re a people business,” with salaries and benefits accounting for as much as 90 percent of districts’ general funds, the Elk Grove Unified School District board president continued, but the district has already been forced to lay off certificated and classified staff and reduce professional development, increase class sizes and make other adjustments.
“We try to be creative and innovative, but there is a tipping point,” Cox warned.
More federal, state cuts may be coming
Unfortunately, that tipping point may be near. At the federal level, a congressional “supercommittee” must announce its plans by Nov. 23 to chop $1.5 trillion off the federal government’s deficit over the next 10 years under the deal that broke last summer’s debt ceiling stalemate; public education is virtually certain to share in those cuts, which will take effect automatically unless Congress can agree on alternative deficit reductions.
Automatic cuts are also on the fiscal calendar in Sacramento. The Legislative Analyst’s Office is due to issue an initial determination this month on whether continuing revenue shortfalls threaten to trigger automatic midyear cuts in the state budget—including up to $1.7 billion for K-12 schools.
“A Decade of Disinvestment: California Education Spending Near the Bottom,” a report released last month by the independent nonprofit California Budget Project, underscores how far behind the rest of the nation California’s education spending has fallen. It shows that the state spent $2,856 less per student than the rest of the United States in 2010-11, and that disinvestment plays out in a number of examples cited in the report. For example, California ranks 50th in the nation in the number of teachers and librarians per student, and 49th in the number of counselors per student.