More than 60 local teachers, students and school employees joined statewide protests of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger”s “May Revise” budget, saying compromises made by the governor for education don”t go far enough.
The governor”s budget still seeks more than $1 billion in cuts to education, according to the Associated Press.
Gathered outside Fort Bragg Town Hall last Thursday, local educators got lots of honks in support, including blasts of big horns from fellow union members, such as the driver of a giant Caltrans truck and even a fire truck.
The original budget proposal from Schwarzenegger called for 10 percent cuts for education, which special education teacher Keith Wyner said meant Fort Bragg Unified School District would have to reduce its annual budget for next year by approximately $800,000. The May Revise budget figure might cost the district “only” $400,000 in reductions.
“Those cuts still translate into reductions in service or programs for students,” Wyner said. Wyner is president of the Fort Bragg District Teachers Association.
“A number of first-year teachers have been laid off for next year. Fewer teachers can mean larger class sizes for those who remain. With recent retirements, and some resignations, some positions will be reduced or possibly filled by those who were laid off. In addition to a reduction of teaching staff, instructional aide support staff, secretary staff support, and custodial services are slated for reductions as well,” said Wyner.
Layoff notices are sent to teachers in the spring in anticipation of budget figures. If the school district can work out a budget that doesn”t eliminate teachers, those notices are often rescinded.
The Fort Bragg Unified School District board has not met since the May Revise Budget was released last week. The district plans to meet June 26 to adopt a budget, but may meet sooner.
State budgets often come in months late, putting local governments, including school districts, into torturous positions when passing their own budgets.
At the last school board meeting, there was extensive discussion of a plan to cut funding to sports travel, with the fear that further cuts to sports travel could jeopardize the ability of local teams to play in their league. Trustees are hopeful that feared deep cuts can be avoided.
“I”m hoping everybody is expressing their concerns about this education budget to Sacramento, our local legislators and particularly the governor,” said Superintendent Steve Lund.
“They need to understand the impact of what they are proposing on the students,” Lund said at the board meeting.
“In my view, it is unconscionable what they are doing to public schools across the board, in addition to the impact on exceptional programs like we have here,” Lund said.
Wyner agrees that local people who are concerned about schools enough to honk should write and call state representatives.
“A letter or card to Gov. Schwarzenegger could also be helpful,” he said. “It should be noted that our local state representatives do support education and are against the governor”s proposed budget cuts to education. But if you write to them with your concerns, it will give them the opportunity to represent your views and validate their position. There are legislators in other parts of the state that do not support education and are advocating cuts to education. If you have friends or relatives in other parts of California, or that belong to organizations that support public education, encourage them to contact their legislators.”
The governor has chosen to cut every state department by 10 percent rather than raise any taxes. The May Revise Plan also includes greatly bolstering the state lottery and borrowing from lottery funds to help bridge the gap. The revise proposes $1.8 billion in additional funding over January”s budget for K-12 education and community colleges, which fully funds the minimum Proposition 98 Guarantee in 2008-09.
Democratic leaders in the California Legislature joined the biggest rally against the May Revise last Thursday in Sacramento, run by the California Teacher”s Association.
Senate leader Don Perata of Oakland said the dominant Democrats in the Legislature will not allow major higher education funding cuts, drawing loud cheers from the audience, the Associated Press reported.
“We need to raise taxes before cutting education,” Perata said.
Assemblyman Fabian Nunez lamented that the state spends more annually to imprison a youth than to educate one.
He cited examples of Republican legislators, who can fill out the two-thirds vote needed to raise taxes, instead blocking recent proposals to impose an oil tax and close a yacht sales-tax loophole. GOP lawmakers have sided with Schwarzenegger”s pledge not to raise taxes.
Schwarzenegger was in Los Angeles for an unrelated event. Event coordinators announced his absence, drawing loud disapproval from the crowd in Sacramento, the Associated Press reported.
Schwarzenegger spokesman Aaron McLear told the AP that “the governor is just as frustrated as lawmakers are” about budget cuts and “believes we shouldn”t put these students through this roller coaster every year with inconsistent funding.” McLear said the solution is in Schwarzenegger”s proposed spending-control ballot measure.
Education funding has become much more complex since Wyner started teaching developmentally disabled adults in the Mount Diablo Unified School District in 1973. He moved to Fort Bragg in 1975 and worked with the Mendocino County Office of Education, handling students from 3 to 21 years of age at first.
“As the need for more services increased, and inclusion into appropriate peer groups became a priority, more classes and programs were added.,” he said.
Today, there are special day classes for the severely handicapped at each school in the FBUSD. There is also a preschool program for children with special needs and a program for special needs high school students between the ages of 18 and 22, the Transitional Learning Center.
“Even though the population of special needs students has increased, and the diversity of needs has increased, funding to provide for those increased costs has not,” Wyner said.
“Next year, the mandates will still be there, but there will be even less funding. In general education over the years we have seen an erosion of programs, especially in the arts and music.”
He said schools are still holding the quality line, but have no more to give.
“Next year, if the proposed budget cuts actually happen, that could be the start of a very steep down hill trend. Any cut to public education hurts our students and schools. Throughout the state, 18,000 educators have already received layoff notices this year, and some of these teachers will never return to California classrooms.”
California, which once ranked at the top in education ratings, has been sliding downhill since the tax revolution of the 1970s and the passage of Proposition 13. The state”s funding of education no longer competes with states of similar wealth such as New York, Ohio and Massachusetts.
Now the state”s funding ranks with Oklahoma, Alabama and Mississippi at the bottom of the pile.
The state is already losing this game and would slide further down that list.
“California continues to rank 46th in per-pupil funding and dead last in the number of teachers per student, librarians per students and counselors per student,” Wyner said.
