A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to shorten the school year by five days is creating panic among educators across California, who say they barely have enough time to fit the state's academic standards into the existing 180-day calendar.
The idea to cut funding equivalent to five school days would save $1.1 billion at a time when California faces a massive budget deficit. But state Supt. of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell called the proposal "devastating."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday, January 10, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 1 inches; 58 words Type of Material: Correction
L.A. Unified layoff notices: An article in Thursday's Section A on educators' reactions to a proposal to cut five days of school to deal with the state budget crisis said the Los Angeles Unified School District had sent layoff notices to 2,300 teachers this week. The Board of Education will vote Tuesday on whether to send the notices.
"It would particularly hurt our low-income students and students of color," he said, because affluent districts are more likely to be able to pay for the five days themselves while poorer districts will be forced to eliminate those teaching days. "The result would be a further widening of the achievement gap," he said.
If the Legislature approves the proposal, California would join Kentucky, North Dakota and a few other states that require the least number of school days.
Parents are worried that the quality of their children's education would suffer and some said that it was an economic issue for them as well -- with an additional week of child-care costs. "I'm a single parent. It's hard to make ends meet," said Tina Herrera, 41, a Long Beach resident whose 9-year-old son attends Holmes Elementary School. "One extra week of child care is hard on my wallet. And there are thousands more just like me."
Republican Ken Maddox, a former assemblyman who is a school board trustee in South Orange County, said that although he is sympathetic to the governor's predicament, the state's schools already are underfunded.
"The standards are getting higher and higher, which is great. It would be nice if the dollars going to schools would get higher and higher," he said. "Our children deserve the best education possible, not the shortest education possible."
A Schwarzenegger spokesman said the suggestion came last fall from district superintendents as a less painful cut than some others that they could be forced to make. Some districts, for example, are considering closing schools, laying off teachers, and eliminating sports and arts programs. The governor's office did not provide the names of any superintendents who support the five-day funding cut.
"We put this forward knowing we were heading into what is clearly the most challenging fiscal environment California has ever faced," said H.D. Palmer, spokesman for Schwarzenegger's finance department.
