Public education devastated by California budget cuts

Hannah Bell

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Fri Jun-05-09 04:40 AM
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Public education devastated by California budget cuts

Two weeks after the California electorate voted down a series of ballot propositions that would have imposed austerity conditions and regressive taxes, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has advanced a wide-ranging set of proposals to slash whatever remains of California�s social safety net.

...In February, (though) the Democratic-led State Legislature passed a budget deal that included tax breaks for sections of big business and $15 billion in cuts to social programs and public education
(more cuts are on the table).

In late May, Governor Schwarzenegger announced revisions to his May budget proposal that include $1.6 billion in cuts to the state�s education system for the 2008-2009 school year and $4.2 billion in cuts for 2009-2010.

These reductions in spending, coming on top of $11.6 billion in cuts already passed by the state government this year, will make California the last state in the US in terms of funding-per-pupil.

....more than 200,000 incoming students will lose most or all tuition assistance under the Cal Grant program...By 2011, Cal Grants will be completely phased out.

...the University of California and the California State University systems, once among the best education systems in the US, will face a further $335 million in budget cuts this year and the next, forcing tuition hikes.

For the first time in its history, CSU will announce a system-wide limit to the number of students enrolling for fall 2009.

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is expected to cut $131 million more this year and up to $273 million next year. The district has already cut $560 million from this year�s budget and is proposing to lay off up to 2,500 teachers.

In Los Angeles, a group of nine teachers and two community activists have started a hunger strike to protest LAUSD�s plans to lay off 2,250 teachers and increase classroom sizes.

High School students in Los Angeles had a walk-out on May 22...

At one school, students threatened to boycott the state testing that determines a school�s ability to earn allocated money for high-performing schools.

The largest demonstration saw 450 students march three miles from the Santee Education Complex, where more than 30 teachers will lose their jobs, to the LAUSD�s headquarters in downtown LA. School police arrested two students...

Despite hours of such testimony (against cuts), Democrat and Republican lawmakers were not moved. In fact, one Assemblywoman�s remarks, Noreen Davis, a Democrat from Santa Rosa, gave crocodile tears to the teachers while expressing the real attitude of the political establishment to the education crisis.

�I feel their pain. I share their pain. I share all their concerns. The challenge is, how do we balance the collapse of the world economy with continuing to educate our children?�

Within the framework of the capitalist system, this �balance� means the impoverishment of the American working class and the dismantling of public education. The war that is being waged against public education and what little remains of the state infrastructure in California is one of the most glaring example of the failure of capitalism.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/cali-j05.shtml