One of the most pernicious aspects of Arnold's budget proposal, which despite some long overdue moves toward new revenue still relies on way too many cuts, is its impact on public schools. As I explained on New Year's Day, Arnold's budget proposal includes this devastating proposal:
The governor has proposed to ease the pain, in part, by accounting transfers involving state transportation funds and by deferring $2.8 billion in school payments from April to July. Wells said the state, by deferring payments for three months, would place an "awful" new burden on school districts to secure short-term loans.
At the time I predicted this would have an extremely negative impact on schools. And now we're starting to see it, beginning in San Luis Obispo County:
Three San Luis Obispo County school districts may face funding shortfalls through 2011 if Gov. Arnold Schwarzen-egger's latest round of budget cuts pass, a move the county's top educator said will result in "extensive" layoffs of teachers and staff.
"I would say it's one step short of an emergency," county Superintendent of Schools Julian Crocker said Friday, noting the affected districts are Lucia Mar, Atascadero and Shandon.
Despite a double-dose of statewide funding reductions hitting schools at the beginning of the fiscal year and again in midyear cuts, the state requires that districts maintain a pool of reserve money. How much depends on how many students are enrolled.
What Arnold is doing is raiding school districts' savings accounts. The delayed payment means they'll have to dip into reserves. The ongoing funding cuts mean they will have a difficult time building the reserves back up. That will require laying off teachers and compromising educational quality. And in an NCLB environment that is a recipe for catastrophe, as schools will lose funding and Arnold can accomplish privatization through the back door.
The numbers:
The governor's proposals would further reduce school funding countywide by a minimum of $14.2 million by the end of June 2010, Crocker said - resulting in a $48.5 million loss over the two years.
The countywide reduction represents a loss of approximately $34,000 per classroom, or about 15 percent of total district revenue.
Lucia Mar will lose an estimated additional $4.3 million, Atascadero will lose an additional $2 million and Shandon is projected to lose an additional $126,000 in ongoing revenue sources.
Shandon, a small town east of Paso Robles on Highway 46, is already proposing cutting bus service - imposing a huge burden on a rural population dependent on that service. And as most of SLO County districts are expecting to run into similar problems, soon educational quality is going to be impacted countywide - and statewide, as SLO County schools' problems are almost certainly being experienced around the state.
It's hard not to read this as a deliberate attack on public schools by a right-wing governor whose privatization crusade seems to extend now to our schools. IOUs and schools may just be what Californians need to wake up and start getting angry about this budget mess.
SLO County residents are especially well positioned to act. Their state legislators - Assemblymember Sam Blakeslee and Senator Abel Maldonado - are among the most important Republicans for us to target in getting to a 2/3rds vote on a sensible budget deal. SLO County parents ought to pay Blakeslee and Maldonado a visit and ask them why they're willing to jeopardize their children's future to fulfill a promise to Grover Norquist.
Yesterday on Daily Kos, I explained how my candidacy for Assembly District Delegate in AD-33 was a classic example of "crashing the gate." Younger volunteers from the Obama campaign are continuing to serve in their communities across the country.
In some communities, there is more than just a tiny bit of friction between us and the old timers and their clubs. I don't begrudge these long term volunteers their positions. But I do begrudge them their monopoly on local party positions.
If San Luis Obispo is famous for anything, it's probably the farmer's market. 20+ years before I moved to the area, I remember my family talking about visiting SLO to go to the Farmer's Market. Tonight, I went there and leafleted for my campaign.
This may become the first get together of Northern AND Southern California Kossacks and progressive bloggers.
Navajo (of SF Kossacks and co-organizer) and I are trying to get a head count. This way we can get some group discounts going for room rates and function rooms.
In any case I will be there on Friday Feb 15 and stay until Feb 18.
As noted here a few days back, the California Transportation Commission voted earlier this week to allocate billions more from the recent highway bond to urban projects, including the widening of the 405 through the Sepulveda Pass.
Unfortunately, to do this, the CTC robbed the rural Peter to pay for the urban Paul's freeway widening, and the folks in Mendocino, San Luis Obispo, and Fontana are *pissed*. Mendocino, which lost funding for the Willits bypass on Highway 101, had this to say, from the Ukiah Daily Record:
"This is clearly a blatant display of power politics disguised as a competitive process. There's not any other way of saying it," Dow said, adding that the nine governor-appointed commissioners, not one of whom lives north of the Golden Gate Bridge, acted as if their function was "to bring home the bacon to whatever community they came from," rather than address the entire state's needs.
