As the state weighs cutting about $8.1 billion from public schools, colleges and universities, scores of educators, parents, students and others told lawmakers Monday that such reductions would jeopardize student success and safety in the short term and California's prosperity in the long term.
A bleak picture emerged of the possible aftermath in the state's schools: only three guidance counselors for 3,200 students at Berkeley High School; classes increasing to 43 students per teacher in Los Angeles; students in a Sacramento suburb no longer given access to classes required for college admission; and an estimated 250,000 students pushed out of California community colleges by fee increases and financial aid cuts.
"We cannot take more cuts. We are already bleeding to death," said Pixie Hayward Schickele, a second-grade teacher of English-language learners in Richmond, Calif., who was among a parade of witnesses testifying before the joint state Assembly and Senate budget committee.
In an increasingly ugly fiscal environment, legislators must close a budget gap that has grown to $24 billion. Under Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed budget, schools and community colleges, already reeling from years of reductions, must cut $1.6 billion in spending from the school year that ends June 30 and $4.5 billion from next year's. The University of California and Cal State systems are also facing nearly $2 billion in cuts. Federal economic stimulus money could backfill some of these cuts.
The governor has also proposed phasing out Cal Grants, the state's main financial aid program for college students, for a savings of $173 million in 2009-10 and $450 million in 2010-11, officials said. And school bus transportation is also on the table.
California Controller John Chiang has urged the governor and legislative leaders to come up with a plan to balance the budget by June 15 and warned that if they do not, the state will have difficulty arranging loans before it runs short of money by the end of the month.
Though many speakers urged legislators not to make more cuts, several school officials seemed resigned that new funding reductions were inevitable and urged legislators to act quickly, to create more flexibility in how districts can spend money and to ease general-fund reserve requirements.
