CitySLzUSD Liaison Highlights 2008 0228

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ranks 46th out of 50 states in per-pupil spending -still leaving California schools about $1,900 below the national average; and WHEREAS, the Governor's budget plan contradicts his own educational panel, which recommends a new school funding formula that would need to add an additional $6 billion to public education; and WHEREAS, California has established some of the most rigorous academic standards in the nation, and the caseloads its school librarians, counselors, nurses, classified workers, and administrators are assigned are among the highest and its classrooms among the most crowded in the nation; and WHEREAS, California's more than six million public school students deserve schools that are safe, clean, vibrant centers of learning in which each student receives a quality education and acquires the skills necessary, to succeed in college or the workplace; and WHEREAS, the teachers, counselors, school librarians, nurses, clerical, custodians, maintenance workers and other staff, principals and administrators of California's public schools are professionals that have dedicated their lives to the education of the children of our state and deserve our respect and support; and WHEREAS, The State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in a recent news conference, called Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget cuts to education "a hostile act" and predicted that California educators would receive a record number of pink slips and lay-off notices under the plan; and WHEREAS, Governor Schwarzenegger has already slashed $506 million from public education in the current fiscal year and a proposed $4.8 billion reduction from the state's 2008-09 education budget in the form of across-the board reductions and cuts to special education and before- and after-school programs; and WHEREAS, a $4.8 billion cut to K-12th grade education would reduce spending statewide thereby necessitating the termination of thousands of teachers statewide, resulting in more crowded classrooms and the loss of art, music and sports programs, sharp reduction of support systems for students provided by counselors, administrators, paraprofessional and other classified staff, and elimination of positions held by custodians and other workers that maintain and ensure the cleanliness and safety of our public schools; and WHEREAS, the Governor's proposed budget reductions are in direct opposition to his "year of education," as well as, contradictory and harmful to the state's mandated goal of improving student achievement, at a time when our students are making progress toward meeting rigorous state and federal education standards; and