Gary Thomas, Ed.D. County Superintendent

Superintendent's Message

State Budget Situation Remains Bad News For Schools

While it may be hard to imagine for those in the education community, May brought a double dose of bad news with updates to the state budget from Gov. Jerry Brown, as well as a report from the California Department of Education on how much our school districts are struggling to meet their financial obligations.

On May 14, Gov. Brown unveiled his May revision of his budget proposal and announced that the state's budget deficit had ballooned to $16 billion, about $7 billion worse than was assumed from his original budget plan in January.

Those stark numbers were followed in a couple days in a report from the California Department of Education showing that 188 school districts around the state were in financial peril. Among those facing dire financial conditions after filing their second interim financial reports were 13 of San Bernardino County's 33 school districts.

These updates come on the heels of a catastrophic four-year budget cycle impacting our public schools, as more than $20 billion in cuts have been made to K-12 education funding. Now, the governor's budget proposal for 2012-13 is built on the passage of a temporary tax initiative and brings schools another year of uncertainty and instability.

Without passage of one of the proposed tax initiatives on the ballot in November, our students are staged to pay the price once again. Gov. Jerry Brown's budget includes trigger cuts that equate to $441 per student statewide should new revenues not be realized.

With the potential of further cuts, comes the task of difficult budget decisions for local school districts. As many know, the reality school administrators and governing board members face is that they must make program, staffing and budget reductions based on the governor's May revision of his budget proposal. These ever challenging decisions must be made following years of school budget cuts and prior to the passage of final budget by state legislators.

Districts statewide, not just those in San Bernardino County, also will have to make tremendously difficult budget decisions in light of further cuts. Having already absorbed enormous cuts over the last four years, after facing a disproportionate share of statewide budget cuts, school districts would be met with the unenviable task of cutting even more programs and personnel. These are unprecedented times for education in California. At no time in history have we had such high expectations for our schools and students with so few resources to meet them.

In San Bernardino County, the impact of these cuts has been staggering by any measure. Sixty-four percent of districts countywide - or 21 of 33 districts - have reduced their teaching staff, and 63 percent report having fewer counselors, nurses, psychologists, librarians and speech specialists as a result of budget cuts. Fifty-six percent of districts report reductions in the number of administrators. We have districts that have completely eliminated school counselors at the secondary level.

Hundreds of teachers and classified employees have lost their jobs as a result of this budget crisis, and some districts have found themselves in the position of issuing hundreds of lay-off notices again this year.

Nearly all of San Bernardino County's 33 school districts have instituted reduced work years and/or furlough days - knowing we already have the shortest school year of industrialized nations.

California's students sit in the most crowded classrooms in the nation, and many schools have eliminated summer school, advanced placement, adult education, career technical courses, arts and music - many of the programs that keep students engaged in their education.

The bottom line for K-12 education funding in California: Our state ranks 47th in the nation in what we spend to educate our public school students. Per-pupil funding is $2,998 under the national average. That's the biggest disparity it's been in more than 40 years. As a nation and as a people, we place the highest value on education as a democratic right, yet our state continues to underinvest in our public schools.

It's ironic that in order to have a vibrant economy, we need a highly educated and highly skilled workforce. With dwindling resources devoted to public education, it will become increasingly more difficult for schools to produce students prepared to graduate for post-secondary options and with the skills necessary to meet workforce demands.

Come November, Californians will have an opportunity to vote to raise revenues to prevent deeper cuts to schools. There's no doubt that an immediate investment in education is necessary to stop further harm to students, staff and programs. In the long-term, we must raise the priority assigned to education in California, and develop a stable and equitable school funding system that invests in future generations of students if we expect to experience full economic recovery in this great state of ours.