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California schools prepare for devastating losses of funding
- 21-5-09
California schools prepare for devastating losses of funding
With California in ever-more-dire financial straits, many districts are facing further layoffs, school closures, bigger classes and possibly shortening the school year. Some may even face insolvency. After voters rejected ballot measures that would have restored state funding for schools, educators
"When there are such ludicrous amounts of money being cut, I don't know what other choice they are going to give us," said Steve Fish, superintendent of the Saddleback Valley Unified School District in south Orange County, which is already planning to shutter libraries and computer labs, lay off 100 teachers and eliminate nearly half its high school guidance counselors.
Unpleasant options
Districts could tap their reserves and federal economic stimulus dollars to lessen the effect of the cuts, said H.D. Palmer, a spokesman for Schwarzenegger's finance department. He said these reductions will be difficult but noted that schools are bearing 30% of the cuts even though they account for 40% of the state's general fund.
California already has received about $4.3 billion in education funding from the economic stimulus package approved by Congress earlier this year, but there remain billions more that will be dependent on how California uses the first round of money. States that use the money to reform troubled schools will be rewarded.
"Actions speak louder than words," said U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, who will meet with educators in San Francisco on Friday. "The state is at a fork in the road and they will either decide to have the courage to do the right thing by its children and create the possibility of bringing in literally hundreds of millions of dollars in competitive grants at a time of tremendous financial need, or the state can choose to perpetuate the status quo and leave those resources on the table."
He was particularly dismayed by the proposal to clip seven days off the 180-day school year.
"The school day, the school week and the school year I think are all too short, and particularly hurt children who come from tougher economic backgrounds," he said in an interview.
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This could end up being a blessing in disguise for quality of education in California. particularly if government-controlled schools go broke and get sold off to the private sector. That would relieve the state of billions of dollars of spending each and every year, including billions wasted on do-nothing administrators. Schools would go back to the way they started, with pupils being the paying customers approaching schools out of their own self-interest to learn whatever they want to learn about, instead of the government being the customer with an interest in uniform citizens who are easy to manipulate. And the private sector would find ways to give vastly superior education for far less.