Governor plans to completely eliminate welfare for families

LA Times ^ | 5/21/09 | Eric Bailey

[Kartographer]

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is proposing to completely eliminate the state’s welfare program for families, medical insurance for low-income children and Cal Grants cash assistance to college and university students.

[jeannineinsd]

From the LA Times:

“The proposals would completely reshape the state’s social service network, transforming California from one of the country’s most generous states to one of the most tightfisted.”

There are Federal programs for these social services: Financial assistance for students (Pell Grants), Medical Insurance (Medicaid) and for families with dependent children (TANF). There are corresponding Californa state programs with higher benefit levels: Financial assistance for students (CalGrants), Medical Insurance (Medi-Cal) and for families with dependent children (CalWorks).

My take on this article - though it isn’t clearly stated - is that the governor is proposing that California’s benenfits will go down to the bare minimum required by the Federal government.

[ridesthemiles]

I teach high school in los angeles and the class size is going from 24-1 to 34 for 9th and tenth graders and 45 for 11th and 12th. This was decided before most understood how how the defcit will be. Things are going to get way more interesting.
If welfare gets cut, members of the welfare class will move to other states. If CA gets serious about illegals, they will also move elsewhere. This would also have an effect on student population and thus class size.”

I agree-
Sure would have been nice to have an approximate breakdown of what percentage of her ‘kids in the class’ might have been illegals.

[ridesthemiles]

A small town in Kalifornia had 4 fire engines.
Kalifornia EPA came in and condemned 2 of them which were only purchased 2 years ago- an investment of $500,000.

Now there are only 2 engines to fight fires with, and which ever bank is holding the loan for the balance owned on the trucks might be in trouble.

I am guessing that is might be hard to sell these trucks, also, to another small town in another state, since the EPA is bent on declaring anything that wasn’t built in 2013 as “non-compliant’ and not usable for fire fighting!!!!

Wonder what the insurance companies are going to do to punich the property owners in that town?

[pogo101]

Agreed, although he probably cannot kill the ESCR program, as that is funded by taxpayer-funded bonds. (Thanks to a proposition so expensive and fanciful, even setting aside moral issues of embryo destruction, that even the LA Times urged a No vote on it.)

[Beeman]

I’ll believe when I see it. He is just saying this to get the feds involved—nothing more. Remember the Romans,”Give them bread and circus.” He will not allow the welfare recipients to riot in the streets.

[AuntB]

“IF ARNOLD had the guts to get them all out in 6 weeks, I don’t think it would take 2 . 5 years to get a balanced budget.”

I think you’re right. And legal immigrants are also on welfare at a higher rate, and most of them are also in California.

[snip] Growing numbers of children of illegal immigrants are being born in this country, and they are nearly twice as likely to live in poverty than those with American-born parents...

Overall, illegal immigrants’ children account for one of every 15 students in kindergarten through 12th grade. In 2008, California had the most illegal immigrants at 2.7 million, double its 1990 number, followed by Texas, Florida, New York and New Jersey.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/money/19175382/detail.html

More than 1 million people became citizens in 2008

Leading countries of birth of new citizens were:
Mexico (122,258)

Largest number of people naturalizing lived in:
California (181,684), New York (73,676) and Florida (54,563).
SOURCE: Office of Immigration Statistics, Department of Homeland Security
http://www.news-journalonline.com/NewsJournalOnline/News/WestVolusia/wvlHEAD03WEST012209.htm

[Rebelbase]

Slashing State worker salaries by 30% would be a good start also.

[Hawthorn]

It’s either:

1. a transparent fake by Arnold, or

2. a satire by Scrappleface

[truthguy]

Get rid of the California Air Resources Board and just use the EPA like all the other states. Get rid of Cal EPA. Get rid off all assistance to Illegal Aliens. Scrap the idea of high speed rail from LA to SF. Get rid of our specially formulated gasoline and used what the rest of the country uses. Try these things for a start.

[Zhang Fei]

I teach high school in los angeles and the class size is going from 24-1 to 34 for 9th and tenth graders and 45 for 11th and 12th.

In most of East Asia, where they test at higher math achievement levels than ours, class sizes are around 50. I don't think bigger class sizes will turn students into underachievers. Heck - undergrad college class sizes can be as large as 200 to a lecture hall.

[calcowgirl]

This is little Ahnuld threatening to hold his breath until Obomba or the citizenry relents and guarantees more borrowing or pays more taxes.

Exactly right.

He has no interest in real solutions or truly scaling back the massive empire he has created.

[goldi]

I don’t even know what it is.

[genghis]

It is always more complicated than it seems.
The best class i ever taught was 53 pre-calculus kids that were desperate to get into calculus.
At my school there are many teachers who can’t manage 20 kids, with 34 it will be a cluster &^%^.

[ichabod1]

It’s a start.

[ichabod1]

Yeah, he’ll just eliminate those programs for American citizens. For mojados though, estas bien.

[ichabod1]

The Governor needs to get his dept heads together and tell them they need to come up with One MEeeeelion Dollars in Cuts Pronto.

[ichabod1]

I’m really sorry about that but if you don’t have the money you don’t have the money. And, I’m serious about being sorry for the teachers. I don’t know how you control them all.

[genghis]

apology not appropriate
how to control them??
well honestly i am one of the world’s experts
read
http://atozteacherstuff.com/pages/4169.shtml

i have received wonderful comments on the effectiveness of the methods employed.

[reformedliberal]

I went to school just prior to the Boomers. We had 35+ routinely in our classes. We met in the gym and cafeteria because there weren’t enough classrooms. We had alternate day school at one point in my town, but the day went to 4:30. I graduated in 1961 and received a real secondary education. We had art, music, theater, languages, sports, college preference tracks and vocational tracks. We had real National Honor Merit Scholars and decent to high SATs/ACTs. We had time to raise the flag and say the Pledge. Our teachers had really low salaries and small pensions. Hardly anyone one had employer-provided health insurance except the government workers.

We did just fine.

[johnthebaptistmoore]

There’s a song on it that includes those exact words. Very goofy story done by the same person, Joss Whedon, responsible for the sci-fi TV series Firefly, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, and the movie Serenity, among other projects.