Did you know that this year in California has been dubbed by Governor Schwarzenegger as “The Year of Education”?
If you haven’t heard, Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed a 14 billion ($14,000,000,000) dollar budget cut for California, of which 4.8 billion ($4.8,000,000,000)are proposed to be cut from public education. This budget cut will be felt by all of California, especially when it comes to social services, national parks and of course, education. For the public schools in wealthy districts and areas, the affects will be felt, however in districts and schools with less financial resources, the aftershocks will continue to ripple long after the waters of the wealthy have subsided.
The question begs to be asked, how do we get more money in education? Do we push harder for legislation that provides for more cash, such as California Proposition 98, which passed in 1988 to establish minimum funding levels for public education? Do we allow corporations and private foundations (which are often funded by corporation such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation/Microsoft) to infuse the system with much-needed dollars, and relinquish our diminshing control over the content and focus of public education?
Or is there another answer?
Julian D. Lute, MA, TEAMS Program Coordinator
Tags: budget, California, cuts, education, Schwarzenegger
