SACRAMENTO — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger will propose cutting state spending on K-12 education and community colleges by $2.2 billion when he presents his budget Monday, administration officials said.
The news came to school officials as they also were learning of the governor's plan to weaken Proposition 98, a constitutional provision to guarantee that education gets a set share of state revenues.
"We are left absolutely speechless by his proposal to suspend and amend Prop. 98 and resolve the state's fiscal troubles at the direct expense of 6 million public schoolchildren," said Scott P. Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Assn.
The governor's proposal would implement across-the-board budget cuts when the state overspends. Schools, like all other programs, would endure large, unanticipated reductions if the state budget falls out of balance.
State Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell called the spending proposals "devastating" and education groups immediately began mobilizing to fight the governor.
Schwarzenegger had vowed to protect schools from such cuts in return for their acceptance of billions of dollars in reductions last year to help balance the current budget. But Finance Director Tom Campbell told the school groups Wednesday afternoon that the governor would not be able to honor that deal. The administration will instead propose using $2.2 billion owed education to help close the state's projected $8.1-billion shortfall.
As the governor prepared to cut education, however, he said in his State of the State speech Wednesday that schools are already failing: About 30% of high school students do not graduate, he said.
And in a move that probably will draw further fire from educators, he proposed that teachers be paid based on merit rather than seniority.
"This is war," said Brett McFadden, legislative advocate for the Assn. of California School Administrators. "We are going to be out in the streets, in the schools, at the PTAs. We had a deal. We shook hands and put it in writing."
That deal began to unravel, however, when the nonpartisan legislative analyst's office reported in November that education spending was projected to grow much faster than originally anticipated. Voter-approved formulas automatically set aside a specific share of all revenue that comes into the state for education, and more revenue than projected has been coming in.
