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Lawmakers set sights on schools in deficit debacle |
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Friday, 16 January 2009 |
 Inyo County School Superintendent Terry McAteer predicts “dire consequences” for schools with the proposed and current funding cuts from the state. For example, mid-year cuts from the state will equal a $210,000 funding reduction for the Bishop Union High School District. Photo by Mike Bodine By Mike Bodine
Register Staff
1-15-2009 State lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have an estimated $40 billion deficit to wrestle with over the next 18 months by making cuts or raising revenues.
In an attempt to fix the problem, legislators and the governor are making cuts to the biggest programs, including K-12 education that accounts for 30.2 percent of the state’s budget, or just more than $40 billion.
These cuts are already being implemented with mid-year reductions, and proposals for next year that include reducing the school calendar by five days and deferring $3 billion for class size reductions in grades K-3.
Inyo County Superintendent of Schools Terry McAteer described the situation as “grim” and “shameful” with “dire consequences.”
He explained that the situation will result in a story not new to educators, one of not knowing if a job will be available in the fall.
With a dire, yet uncertain state budget, districts are forced to draft conservative budgets which usually means “large numbers of lay-off slips,” according to McAteer.
The old story is that districts are mandated to notify teachers by March 15 if they will be re-employed for the following school year.
However, the March 15 deadline is months ahead of a finalized state budget, so the positions could be available when the state budget comes through, but that’s usually in June. However, teachers need ample time to look for a new job, hence the March 15 date.
Teachers are then left in a state of limbo not knowing if their jobs will be available for next year, but if they wait around to see if it is available, they could put themselves at risk of not having ample time to apply for a job in a different district.
So even though lay-off slips will have been handed out it doesn’t mean the jobs are lost until the state finalizes a budget and the districts know what they can do financially.
“It’s a wacky way to do business,” McAteer said.
According to McAteer, one of the governor’s current solutions is to make mid-year cuts of $300 per student, or ADA, average daily attendance.
He gave Bishop Union Elementary School District as an example with an ADA of 1,300; multiplied by $300, that’s $390,000. For Bishop High School District with an ADA of approximately 700, the cut is $210,000.
“And when the state runs out of cash in mid-February, how will districts continue with no cash for the state?” McAteer asked.
According to McAteer, the state constitution guarantees that education and schools are always “first in line for funding.” This means that even though the state will run out of funds to pay tax-returns and probably payroll, the state still has the revenue stream of sales and property taxes that will partially go to schools.
Schools have rainy-day funds, too, McAteer said, but they are not a long-term fix.
“All school districts have decent reserves to get us through a couple of weeks, hopefully its enough time for the legislature to come to their senses,” McAteer said Tuesday.
There are additional cuts the governor is proposing in his 2009-10 draft budget released New Year’s Eve. One proposal is to reduce the upcoming academic year by five days to save approximately $1.1 billion.
McAteer explained this as meaning the state will probably make the cut, but it will equal five less days of funding with the school districts left to decide how to deal with the cuts.
“So we either have to go with 180 school days with only 175 days of funding, or cut the school year to 175 days and hope the teachers association goes along with it, or we’ll have to renegotiate the 180-day contracts with teachers,” McAteer explained.
California already ranks near the bottom in the country in per student spending. According to Education Week and its recently released “Quality Counts” report, California ranks 47th for per pupil spending, at $7,571. The national average is $9,963 per pupil, with Vermont spending the most at $15,139 to Utah which spends the least at $5,964 per student.
And, according to a state budget watchdog organization, www.next10.org, California spends nearly six times more per California inmate than students, at more than $33,000 per prisoner.
“It’s shameful what legislators are doing to the state’s taxpayers and its students,” McAteer said, explaining that it’s shameful that legislators’ solutions to the budget problems are to simply make cuts, but they’re not solving the problems.
“If the cuts come through and the state doesn’t solve the deficit – we won’t make it through to June 30,” McAteer predicted. He added that if the budget does get that bad, by that point, the state will have stopped funding many welfare programs and probably state employee salaries. McAteer referred again to the constitutional guarantee that schools get first dibs on state funding, so if education funding dries up, many other programs will have already met their demise.
On a more productive note, McAteer explained that California schools stayed open through the Great Depression and schools will weather this recession.
“With the dedicated staff and support from the community, we can get through this situation together,” McAteer said.
McAteer stressed the impact this could have on Inyo County, as the school districts are one of the largest employers and economic generators in the county.
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Last Updated ( Saturday, 25 April 2009 )
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