California's children and our schools are being devastated by the proposed 2012-13 state budget. Governor Brown's tax initiative-the success of which will not be determined until November-is integral to revenues that schools and districts will need to open their doors months earlier. This is forcing districts right now to budget either conservatively without the proposed revenues, using extreme austerity measures, or precariously with hopeful, but potentially unrealistic, expectations of additional revenues.
Frankly, the proposed budget "blows" for K-12 education. Regardless of the success or failure of the Governor's tax initiative in November, California children will lose. If his initiative fails, then a mid-year trigger will reduce K-12 education funding another 6%, a whopping loss of more than 13% since 2007-08, even without adjusting for inflation. This mid-year loss would be $370 per student, the equivalent of three weeks of their education. This is unacceptable, as the remaining funding cannot sustain quality education. Even if the Governor's initiative passes, per pupil funding for education will be less than it is currently, and schools and students are already suffering greatly.
Most importantly, districts cannot budget on optimism-they must use realistic figures-so most districts must use conservative, worst-case-scenario funding as they construct austerity plans, causing class sizes to balloon, instructional days to be eliminated, and student programs and services to be jettisoned in an effort to balance their budgets. For a variety of contractual and programmatic reasons, these cutbacks cannot merely be restored mid-year, even if the initiative does pass, so every California student in public school in 2012-13 loses.
The children of California deserve better, and the future of our state depends on a well-educated workforce. Our state leaders have the power to keep the state's economic woes from falling on the shoulders of the most vulnerable citizens of our state, our children. They need to work together NOW, in a responsible and respectful manner, to restore reasonable and realistic funding to K-12 education. Join us in telling them - Don't blow it; the children of California are counting on you!
