LEGISLATION INFORMATION ALERT DATE: January 11, 2008Governor Proposes Drastic Budget Cuts for Students – The Children of California Need Your HelpIMMEDIATE Action Needed:
Voice PTA’s strong opposition to the Governor’s K-12 education budget proposal.
- Email or call your State Assembly member or Senator right away!
Message: PTA urges legislators not to cut Proposition 98, the minimum public education funding guarantee for our students. The impact of the unprecedented cuts proposed in the Governor’s budget would severely harm each and every school.
Find Your Legislators: http://www.capwebworks. com/addresslookup/lookup.aspx
- Forward this alert to others to generate the largest response possible.
- Advise the PTA Legislation Team about your contacts and responses received at legislation@capta.org
- Be ready for additional information from California State PTA. This is the first action in what we expect to be a multi-pronged effort to protect funding for our students.
BACKGROUND
On Thursday, January 10, Governor Schwarzenegger released his state budget proposal. The proposal seeks to address the state’s estimated $14 billion deficit by making the largest reduction to education funding in California history. For 2008-09, the Governor proposes that the Legislature suspend Proposition 98 (the minimum funding guarantee for schools) and cut $4.4 billion (more than 9%) in education funds. The Governor also proposes $400 million in education funding reductions in the current 2007-08 budget year.
While we are still analyzing the details, the proposal calls for:
- $2.6 billion in cuts by eliminating the statutory 4.94% Cost-of-Living-Increase (COLA) for schools, and reducing the revenue limit allocation by an additional 2%. This would create a combined “deficit factor” (money that is statutorily owed to schools as part of Proposition 98) by a total of $2.6 billion, or nearly 7%.
- $1.1 billion in cuts by reducing categorical programs funding, including reductions to the Class Size Reduction program, Instructional Materials, Transportation, Supplemental School Counselors, and many others.
- $360 million in cuts by eliminating the COLA and “growth” funding for special education, as well as additional cuts to special education, which is already chronically underfunded.
- $200 million in cuts by eliminating COLA and growth funding for child development programs (nearly $200 million), which would eliminate nearly 8,000 existing child care slots.
- Reductions in funding for community colleges, as well as University of California and California State University.
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