August 29, 2008: From Tim Davidson (Marin County PTA President)


A huge THANK YOU to all who called Marin legislators Migden and Huffman today.  Your voice, combined with tens of thousands of other concerned parent voices throughout the state, has once again made a difference.  Today's senate budget proposal, which included deep cuts to schools, hospitals and communities, failed.  See the update from the California State PTA below.  --Tim

 

CALIFORNIA STATE PTA

Legislation Action Alert

August 29, 2008

  

Senate Budget Proposal Failed!!!

  

But this is NOT over yet -- vote is technically still on call and word in the halls is that it could be a very, very long day.

 

BOTTOM LINE:  Keep Calling your Senator Today telling them to Oppose Senate Budget Proposal!


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More information can be found at the Ross Valley School district website by clicking here.


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Voice your strong opposition to the Governor’s K-12 education budget proposal. Contact our government officials today.


  1. Senator - Carole Migden 

  2.             Call: 916-651-4003

  3.             Email at: Senator.Migden@senate.ca.gov

  4.             Write to at 455 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102


  5. Assembly - Jared Huffman 

  6.             Call: 916-319-2006

  7.             Email at: http://legplcms01.lc.ca.gov/PublicLCMS/ContactPopup.aspx?district=AD06

  8.             Write to at 3501 Civic Center Drive, Suite 412, San Rafael, CA 94903

  9.             Fax: (415) 479-2123


  11.         Governor - Arnold Schwarzenegger 

  12.             Call: 916-445-2841

  13.             Email at: http://gov.ca.gov/interact

  14.             Write to at State Capitol Building, Sacramento, CA 95814

  15.             Fax: (916) 445-4633



BACKGROUND


On Thursday, January 10, 2008 Governor Schwarzenegger released his state budget proposal.  The proposal seeks to address the state’s estimated $14 billion deficit by making the largest reduction to education funding in California history.  For 2008-09, the Governor proposes that the Legislature suspend Proposition 98 (the minimum funding guarantee for schools) and cut $4.4 billion (more than 9%) in education funds.  The Governor also proposes $400 million in education funding reductions in the current 2007-08 budget year.  

 

While we are still analyzing the details, the proposal calls for: 

•$2.6 billion in cuts by eliminating the statutory 4.94% Cost-of-Living-Increase (COLA) for schools, and reducing the revenue limit allocation by an additional 2%.  This would create a combined “deficit factor” (money that is statutorily owed to schools as part of Proposition 98) by a total of $2.6 billion, or nearly 7%.

•$1.1 billion in cuts by reducing categorical programs funding, including reductions to the Class Size Reduction program, Instructional Materials, Transportation, Supplemental School Counselors, and many others.

•$360 million in cuts by eliminating the COLA and “growth” funding for special education, as well as additional cuts to special education, which is already chronically underfunded.

•$200 million in cuts by eliminating COLA and growth funding for child development programs (nearly $200 million), which would eliminate nearly 8,000 existing child care slots.

•Reductions in funding for community colleges, as well as University of California and California State University.

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Learn more about what our schools DO need here: http://irepp.stanford.edu/projects/cafinance.htm.



 On behalf of California State PTA, President Pam Brady issued the following statement:
 

CALIFORNIA EDUCATION COALITION
STATE BUDGET TALKING POINTS

California State PTA will be working with the Education Coalition to inform legislators and the public about the severity of the proposed budget cuts.  Below are some initial Talking Points that you may utilize in addition to the points emphasized in California State PTA’s statement.

•While it is clear there are extraordinary challenges in balancing the state’s budget, the Education Coalition strongly opposes the Governor’s 2008-09 budget proposal and his plans to eviscerate Proposition 98. Our students and schools did not create this budget problem, and their progress shouldn’t be undermined because of it.

•The governor’s budget reductions would be disastrous to public schools and they are fundamentally inconsistent with the state’s goal of improving student achievement. A $4.4 billion cut to Prop. 98 would mean laying off tens of thousands of teachers and would also result in increases in class size throughout the state, not to mention a further erosion of the support system for students provided by classified and paraprofessional staff.  

•Voters passed Prop. 98 almost 20 years ago to ensure our students and schools receive minimum funding. They strongly reaffirmed their support for the minimum funding law in 2005. Proposals to suspend Prop. 98 conflict with the will of the voters and jeopardize the minimum education funding levels Prop. 98 provides for students and schools.

•According to a report released this week from Education Week, California spends $2,000 less per student than the national average. Other recent studies have shown that California seriously underfunds its public schools, with New York spending 75 percent more than California. The “Getting Down to Facts” studies show that billions more would be necessary to ensure the opportunity for all students to meet the state’s rigorous academic standards. In addition, California has some of the most overcrowded classrooms as well as the greatest shortage of librarians, counselors and other critical support staff in the nation.

•Experts including the Fordham Foundation (one of the nation's leading proponents of rigorous academic standards), the Public Policy Institute of California, EdSource and researchers at Stanford University all confirm that California's K-12 academic and performance standards are among the most challenging in the nation. With hard work, modest investments in teacher training and the adoption of standards-aligned textbooks, our students and schools have been making progress. Reading scores are up 25 percent and math scores have increased 17 percent in the last four years. This progress cannot continue with these proposed cuts to our public schools.  

•A state budget proposal that looks at cuts alone is not a real solution, because it doesn’t address California’s underlying problem of inadequate and unstable revenue sources. We cannot talk about spending cuts without also talking about increasing revenues.

•The most pressing challenge is to enact a balanced budget that continues the momentum of educational improvement that has been built since the late 1990s. This budget does not do that and anything less is unacceptable.