Thread: CA:Budget deadlock harms education

Budget deadlock harms education
Tuesday, May 20, 2008


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Our state government is severely dysfunctional.

That is not big news to anyone who has been paying attention to the status of the state of California over the last few years. People were so fed up that they recalled a Democratic governor in an overwhelmingly Democratic state.

I got another lesson in the state of the state May 2 when Tim Baird, the Ojai Unified School District superintendent, and I visited with our local Assembly representative, Audra Strickland, R-Moorpark.

The meeting was civil enough. Strickland greeted us warmly, heard our tale of woe about the massive budget cuts we are making that will surely affect the quality of the educational experience of our students, and said that she agreed that education should be a priority.

She said that she didn't agree with the across-the-board cuts proposed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. There is a Republican plan, she said, that would fund schools to the voter-mandated levels (known as the Proposition 98 levels) and provide some flexibility to districts to move money from restricted funds to the general fund.

Those items sound good, but won't really add up to much. This is pretty much like John McCain and Hillary Clinton's idea for a gas-tax holiday. It is a press release designed to convey that the politicians care, without much real meat to it.

Then, after telling us about her concern for education, we got a lecture on how much waste there is in the state budget and how the state spends $5 billion to $11 billion supporting people who are in the country illegally. If we didn't supply them with government services, she said, we could fully fund schools. (The cost of illegal immigration is an extremely controversial calculation. Some analyses show that the net financial effect on the state is positive, some negative.)
To me, these arguments are examples of why the state government doesn't work. The subject of waste in government sounds good. I would love for the Republicans (or the Democrats, for that matter) to clamp down on "waste" and solve our budget problems. But repeating the waste issue over and over again doesn't really solve the problem unless there is a comprehensive program to attack it.

The illegal-immigrant issue is another way to cloud our problems. The state really has no recourse other than to supply education, healthcare and other vital services to people who are here, regardless of their immigration status, based on a variety of court rulings. And, under the U.S. Constitution, only the federal government can solve the illegal-immigration issue.

By bringing up the immigration issue, the assemblywoman is talking about something she has no control over.
It is like the OUSD saying we don't like one of the myriad rules mandated by the federal or state governments and we're going to whine about it. It does no good unless you try to change those rules at the place where they are made.

One of the ultimate reasons for the lack of effectiveness of the state Legislature is that there seems to be no one there who will compromise. Both sides dig into their positions. The Democrats hold overwhelming majorities in both the Assembly and the state Senate, but they don't have enough votes in either house to meet the two-thirds requirement to pass a budget.

As a result, both sides play a game of budgetary chicken. And the big loser is our children.

Our school district must pass a budget for the next fiscal year (from July 2008 to June 2009) by the end of this June. The state budget will surely not be passed by that time, so we won't know what the outcome of the eventual budget "compromise."

When I joked that I expect the state budget this year won't get passed until October, I didn't get a big denial from the assemblywoman. But when I asked for her help in trying to build some consensus or compromise to fund education in a more timely manner, I got only an explanation about how unfortunate the whole situation is related to the timing of the school year.

I would like all Democrats and Republicans to understand that these deadlocks hurt public education. Not only do the budget cuts hurt, but the uncertainty compounds the problems. We need real leadership. And real leadership means working for compromises. We know we won't end up with everything that either side wants. I, for one, would be happy with some cuts in "wasteful" spending and some increases in revenues. Realistically, how else are we going to solve our problem?

And, when we do finally reach the solution for this year, I hope that, in the spirit of compromise, the two sides can come up with a plan to smooth out the dramatic budgetary swings we seem to be facing as a state from year to year. If that is accomplished, our school district can focus on educating students, instead of dealing with periodic budget crises.

The voters of the state of California did speak clearly several years ago when they recalled Gov. Gray Davis. They want a government that works. Unfortunately, the Legislature (both Republicans and Democrats) didn't get the message.

— Steve Fields is president of the Ojai Unified School District.
http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2 ... education/

Then, after telling us about her concern for education, we got a lecture on how much waste there is in the state budget and how the state spends $5 billion to $11 billion supporting people who are in the country illegally. If we didn't supply them with government services, she said, we could fully fund schools. (The cost of illegal immigration is an extremely controversial calculation. Some analyses show that the net financial effect on the state is positive, some negative.)

She's right. If IA's are here working, they should be self-supporting or they are a DRAIN on the economy. It's elementary math my dear deluded school official. The state government has full control over the freebies given to IAs (except school and ER ONLY services).

Education is California's single largest public expenditure and commands 42% of that state’s $150 BILLION budget. The State of California's Legislative Analyst's Office reports that of the state's 6.4 million K through 12 public school students, one out of four is not fluent in English. Of that number, 85% are Spanish speaking (illegal immigrants). Additionally, one out of nine of these (illegal immigrant) students require special education programs.

These children of Spanish speaking foreign (illegal) immigrants increase California's K-12 enrollment by 21.3%, nearly 1.4 million (illegal immigrant) students. At $11,584 each, which is the state’s 2007-2008 budgeted allocation per student, the cost of educating these (illegal alien) students is $15.8 BILLION. Add in the $1.3 BILLION for special programs to accommodate non-English speaking (illegal alien) students, and the cost increases to $17.1 BILLION. The state's current budget deficit is projected to be $16 BILLION.
http://www.capsweb.org/content.php?id=301&menu_id=8