O'Connell highlights impact of budget cuts to education

 SOUTH PASADENA - State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today held a news conference at Arroyo Vista Elementary School to discuss the severe and immediate impact that the Governor's proposed cuts to education will have on California's students and schools.

"Yesterday the Governor spoke about the courage needed by the Legislature to make the difficult decisions necessary to close California's massive budget shortfall, pegged at $24.3 billion right now," O'Connell said. "I could not agree with him more on his call for courageous decision making, but proposing debilitating cuts to education is not the way that we're going to get ourselves out of this fiscal crisis."

The Governor has proposed $1.3 billion in cuts to this current school year and another $4 billion in cuts for the next school year. If these cuts are approved in their entirety, they would add to the nearly $12 billion in cuts schools were already forced to sustain with the budget agreement that came about in February.

            "Making education the scapegoat for California's financial mess is not the answer," O'Connell said. "The impact of cuts already implemented and those that may still come will be severe and immediate."

O'Connell cited a number of specific examples of the impact of cuts to education, including class-size increases in the South Pasadena Unified School District, which would result in kindergarten through third-grade classes having up to 32 students and fourth and fifth grade classes with as many as 36 children in each class; the cancelation of summer school programs at the Los Angeles Unified School District and the expected laying off of 2,250 teachers; and the recent vote by the Mount Diablo Unified School District board to lay off more than 400 teachers as well as the likely elimination of their sports and most music programs.

"Preparing students for productive futures is a critical mission of our government, and it is vital for our state's long-term success that we have an educated, highly skilled workforce that can compete in the global economy. But we cannot succeed in achieving this necessary and ambitious undertaking when our resources are so excessively depleted," O'Connell said.

"I appreciate the challenging task before the Governor and the Legislature, but simply gutting vital state services, especially education, is not a fair or responsible approach to closing this budget gap. We can talk about courage until we're blue in the face, but courage is just a word until it is supported by the right kind of action. And the right kind of action in this case means protecting education and investing in the future," he said.

"The Legislature and the Governor must consider new revenues and repealing tax loopholes as part of a responsible budget compromise, otherwise they will set in motion a downward spiral in the quality of the educational experience our children receive over the next several years," O'Connell said. "Relying solely on these heavy-handed cuts will do a grave disservice to our children's and California's future to such an extent that not even they can fully realize yet. Education is very much a part of California's long-term economic recovery from this recession, but if we're not willing to invest in it then our state's future will continue to remain shrouded in instability and uncertainty."