Service Cutbacks

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Thursday it is canceling the bulk of its summer school programs, the latest in a statewide wave of cutbacks expected to leave hundreds of thousands of students struggling for classes. The reductions, which will force many parents to scramble for child care, are the most tangible effect of the multibillion-dollar state financial cuts to education. Community colleges also have announced summer program cancellations.

Cynde Soto dreads the arrival of yet another benefit notice. Her cash assistance has been cut four times in two years. State medical coverage is getting more expensive and no longer includes dental care or podiatry. And the in-home help she needs to take care of basics has been cut by about 20 minutes a day. "That doesn't sound like a lot to people but ... I'm a quadriplegic," said the 54-year-old Long Beach resident. "I can't even scratch my own nose. " Faced with years of recession-driven budget shortfalls, state lawmakers have made deep cuts to health and social services.

Twice a week, Leonard Feldman, 90 and blind in one eye, takes the No. 218 bus from Studio City over the Hollywood Hills to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to visit his ailing wife. "It's the only way I'm going to get over the hill without making all kinds of transfers," Feldman said while sitting with just one other passenger on the Metropolitan Transportation Authority bus. But he soon may have to find a new way to the hospital.

Since the cancellation of virtually all public summer school in Los Angeles, Yolanda Murrieta has been scrambling to find alternatives to keep her three children busy and academically engaged. Tutoring, which would cost hundreds of dollars a month, is not an option. Instead, Murrieta is cobbling together a schedule that includes regular library visits and trips to the Boys & Girls Club.

Leaders of a Cal State Northridge student body that is struggling with fewer classes and services and higher fees organized a meeting Monday to grill state legislators and campus administrators about the budget crunch. But when the appointed hour rolled around at noon, all but about 25 of the legions of students who trooped by were headed for a different kind of grill--the one serving lunch in the University Union. Many of those chatting with friends nearby weren't sure of the event's purpose.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Jesse Brown delivered a grim message Thursday to veterans at the VA Medical Center in West Los Angeles: Plans to cut the federal deficit might mean that veterans' access to medical care would be limited. Brown had traveled to Los Angeles from his Washington office to present grants--totaling more than $1 million--to three Westside organizations that provide services to homeless veterans. However, Brown vowed again to continue lobbying for more VA funding.

In a cheery classroom decorated with posters exhorting students to "Dive into a Good Book," four first-graders, who are struggling to read, recited words ending with the "ang" sound -- bang, rang, sang, fang, gang. The Foothill Ranch Elementary School students used their index fingers to trace the letters into squares of felt and carpet, imprinting the connection between the letters and the sound into their minds.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles is eliminating its Saturday operating hours this month, another victim of the state budget battle. Ordinarily, 53 DMV offices are open one Saturday morning every month, which would have fallen on Aug. 16. But the DMV has been grappling with service cuts since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on July 31 ordered the layoff of thousands of part-time employees, limited overtime and imposed a hiring freeze.

Though Rapid Transit District board members voiced what they perceived to be causes of their revenue problems, I seriously doubt they gave the causes realistic priorities. Should they poll those of us who ride the buses daily (paying for our passes up front) we would gleefully advise them to get the buses to our stops and on time. They mention bus service cutbacks. We aggravated regular riders thought they had already implemented service cutbacks. Now they want to pass out "free tokens" (Metro, Nov. 20)

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors gave the go-ahead Tuesday for the county's beleaguered library system to explore ways to market its operations as a way of raising funds and staving off further service cutbacks. Other county departments have adopted marketing programs, but the idea has gathered steam as the county has faced its worst fiscal crisis ever. Library services lost nearly $30 million in the current budget, forcing severe reductions in operating hours and hundreds of layoffs.

With steep state budget cuts under debate in Sacramento, Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to push for changes to CalWorks and other government aid programs they said would save nearly $270 million. Included in their suggestions is a novel proposal: Put unemployed parents to work caring for their own children.

The Los Angeles Unified School District announced Thursday it is canceling the bulk of its summer school programs, the latest in a statewide wave of cutbacks expected to leave hundreds of thousands of students struggling for classes. The reductions, which will force many parents to scramble for child care, are the most tangible effect of the multibillion-dollar state financial cuts to education. Community colleges also have announced summer program cancellations.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Tuesday sent lawmakers his plan to trim more than $5 billion in spending by dismantling or drastically curtailing state programs that provide Californians with healthcare, higher education, welfare, parks, AIDS treatment and counseling, prisoner rehabilitation and other services. The cuts came atop other severe spending reductions in a separate $16-billion plan that the governor unveiled two weeks ago.

Lee Suk-hee can stomach much of the belt-tightening that South Korea's gasping economy has asked of her, including fewer shopping sprees and more nights eating dinner at home. But here's where the 47-year-old homemaker draws the line: Don't try to take away the free reality TV she watches on her cellphone while riding the subway every day. "I bought this cellphone to watch television," she said during one recent underground trip. "I'd feel really bad if it went away." It may.

In a cheery classroom decorated with posters exhorting students to "Dive into a Good Book," four first-graders, who are struggling to read, recited words ending with the "ang" sound -- bang, rang, sang, fang, gang. The Foothill Ranch Elementary School students used their index fingers to trace the letters into squares of felt and carpet, imprinting the connection between the letters and the sound into their minds.

"On or about December 1910," Virginia Woolf wrote, "human character changed." We can be much more specific: "On Nov. 4, 2008, just after 11 p.m. Eastern, America changed" (human character remains rather intransigent).

In the early days, it was called a sanitarium. "But a better term might have been a prisob," said Irwin Ziment, medical director of Olive View UCLA Medical Center, which has been celebrating its 75th year this week. There were speeches and cake Friday to honor the hospital that has been transformed into a modern facility from a collection of wood-frame buildings where the sick and dying tuberculosis patients were forced by law to stay.

Even as President-elect Barack Obama plans an ambitious push to expand health coverage nationwide, states are slashing health services to their poorest residents amid the economic downturn. The unprecedented cuts in public assistance come as millions of Americans are losing their jobs and health insurance.

Even as President-elect Barack Obama plans an ambitious push to expand health coverage nationwide, states are slashing health services to their poorest residents amid the economic downturn. The unprecedented cuts in public assistance come as millions of Americans are losing their jobs and health insurance.

University of California officials on Friday proposed reducing freshman enrollment for next fall by 2,300 students, or about 6%, to cope with what they said is insufficient state funding. Enrollment would not be cut at UCLA and UC Berkeley, the most popular campuses, and expansion would continue at UC Merced, the newest school, according to the plan that is to be reviewed by the UC regents next week.