California: California's schools to lay off 25,000 staff

The Independent (UK) ^ | 6 April 2003 17:16 | Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

California may fancy itself as the fifth largest economy in the world, but when it comes to funding its school system it is a calamity.

Across the state, 25,000 primary and secondary school teachers – 20 per cent of the total – have just been notified that they will be out of work from September.

In each of the state's 1,000-odd school districts, administrators are contemplating, reluctantly, the wholesale dismemberment of programmes, from music to art to PE, as well as the dismissal of nurses, librarians and cleaners.

Class sizes, which were successfully reduced in the go-go 1990s to as low as 20 to 1 in the primary grades, look certain to expand again, with some scenarios suggesting 40 or 50 students per teacher in certain classes.

The reason for this is simple: the state is broke. Because of the depressed economy, the bursting of the dot-com bubble and a tax code that makes state revenues excessively reliant on personal incomes rather than property values or corporate profits, California is facing a $35bn (£22bn) budget shortfall this year. Education accounts for roughly half of state spending, so schools are where the pain is being felt first.

It would not be so calamitous if Californian schools were not woefully underfunded already, ranking 41st in spending per pupil out of the 50 states. New York state, for example, spends $4,000 more per child per year. There is simply no fat to cut, largely because of a statewide tax revolt in the 1970s that capped spending for social services, sabotaging America's former leading school system.

"Let's cut the rhetoric of 'Leave No Child Behind' [President Bush's campaign slogan on education] and 'fess up to the reality that all children will be left behind," said John Deasy, superintendent of the relatively successful Santa Monica-Malibu school district in southern California, which now faces the loss of more than 200 teachers.

States across the country are suffering their worst budget crisis for half a century, and few are receiving help from the federal government, which is pouring funds instead into counter-terrorism, the military and tax cuts for the wealthy. Anti-war activists like to call the education crisis in California an instance of "domestic collateral damage", holding the White House at least indirectly responsible.

But California's own political leadership is also to blame. Governor Gray Davis, a Democrat, is infuriating even his own party by refusing to contemplate substantial tax increases and handing out favours to campaign contributors, notably the prison guards' union. While the schools sink into oblivion, Governor Davis is insisting on building a new death row unit at San Quentin prison. The price tag: $220m.

6 April 2003 17:16

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[bonesmccoy]

The cost of attorney time in Calif is a joke.

The doctors are paid $5.00 a month to save someone's life.

The attorneys are paid $5.00 per minute to do nothing but conjecture, handwave, and guess.

Thanks Gray!

[aberaussie]

As far as I'm concerned, Kalifornica's government school problem is poetic justice. It serves the NEA right for making life difficult for homeschoolers.

Hear, hear! I wonder if they still have the funds to chase homeschoolers down as truant....

[Canticle_of_Deborah]

I already downloaded it a few days ago:-) I'm going to try and get a few family members to sign it before I turn it in.

[Koblenz]

There are several points I think that need to be made:

1) California relies way too much on income taxes. What happens is that during the good times, when stock options are being cashed in, California rakes in the tax dollars. But during the bad times, tax receipts are way down. This forces tax rates to be increased, furthering the cycle. It also causes a lot of people to leave the state. California's personal income tax rates top out somewhere around 10%.

2) Property taxes. Most states rely on property taxes. But in Calfornia, the Proposition 13 has really created distorions. I'm not against lower rates, but the way things work in CA is pretty ridiculous. Taxes on a house don't go up very much, until someone sells the house, at which point they go way up. So you can have two people living in identical houses next door to each other, but with radically different tax bills if one of the owners has been there since 1982 and the other since 1999.

3) School spending. Technology does about zip in grade schools except cost money. Kinds in sixth grade or less really don't need to use laptops, and they really should learn the basics of reading, writing, arithmetic, etc.

[umgud]

You could completely defund all CA schools tomorrow, and students who want to learn and have their parents care and support, will find a way to be educated.

Or.........You could raise school funding a thousandfold tomorrow, and students who don't want to be educated, won't be educated.

[Amerigomag]

How big would the class sizes be if all of the illegal aliens were excluded?

If only illegal aliens were excluded the amount would equal less than 5%.

If anchor babies are added to the mix the total rises to about 20%.

But if you included all children who derived there status from illegal immigration since 1950 that number would be approximately 45%.

Yes folks that's one half of California's primary, public schools populated by the consequences of unregulated immigration.

[BossLady]

"Let's cut the rhetoric of 'Leave No Child Behind' [President Bush's campaign slogan on education] and 'fess up to the reality that all children will be left behind," said John Deasy, superintendent of the relatively successful Santa Monica-Malibu school district in southern California, which now faces the loss of more than 200 teachers.

I figured it would be alllllllll Bush's fault....let's not look at the governor or anything like that..../sarcasm

[Bush2000]

California may fancy itself as the fifth largest economy in the world, but when it comes to funding its school system it is a calamity.

Translation: "Spending more equals higher quality". Pure BS.

There is simply no fat to cut, largely because of a statewide tax revolt in the 1970s that capped spending for social services, sabotaging America's former leading school system.

What utter tripe. Tell that to my kids' private school. Tuition per student costs half of what the state spends -- and the quality is better.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"There is simply no fat to cut, largely because of a statewide tax revolt in the 1970s that capped spending for social services, sabotaging America's former leading school system."

Horsepucky. We could stop educating illegal immigrants, for example, but lack the political will to do so. And unmentioned, of course, is why there was a tax revolt: people were being forced from their homes, and the pickpocket politicians refused to do anything about it. So the electorate took matters into their own hands. By the way, there was no "cap" for social services... just a limitation on property tax rates the state could impose.

And that was just one kind of tax. Meanwhile Kalifornistan has some of the highest income-taxation in the world-- more than many countries. If we can't drain the blood of taxpayers and manage to fund our schools with the proceeds, one must seriously question our priorities.

[ladylib]

California was given the choice as to whether they wanted vouchers. They voted NO. Of course, the teachers unions helped to defeat it.

Some people (in the private sector) are getting creative about solving education problems:

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030331-042003-6845r

These people will ultimately decide the direction education is going to go in this country, and it probably won't be public schools.

In NJ, we had a chance to vote for Brett Schundler who offered a scholarship plan that would have filled empty classroom space in churches and at the same time make overcroweded public schools manageable again. The teachers union went out of their way to make sure he didn't win the election and implement his plan. The teachers union thugs also sabotaged Coke machines because Coca-Cola was interested in developing scholarships for children who couldn't afford private or parochial schools.

Now we have vastly overcrowded public schools with the poor dear teachers (my brother being one of them) teaching some classes in broom closets. Tough! I'll never vote for expanding our public schools.

The teachers unions are going to become their own worse enemies, and I say it's about time.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

True.

[joesnuffy]

Oh no homo recruitment, commie and greenie will be off where will they find replacements

[Stopislamnow]

And this bad why?

Unemployed leftists can't contribute to leftist politicians.

Some of those leftist teachers might HAVE to send thier own kids to PUBLIC schools since they can't afford the private ones...

I bet nothing is being done about financial aid for illegals either.

Reap what you've sown California, within five years you'll resemble a third world nation in every single way.

No pity for this socialist paradise.

[Vigilanteman]

Tell that to my kids' private school. Tuition per student costs half of what the state spends -- and the quality is better.

And, by simple math, if half the public school students could be encouraged to attend private schools, the state could cut 25% NET per pupil from their budget with more funds available for the remainder. Likely as not, the best teachers would go with them.

[rimmont]

The Democraps of California are trying to turn this state into a more Europe-like "statist" society. I have heard some of them crow about how California will be the model the rest of the country will have to follow. Though I am a citizen of this state, I am happy to see their dream going down in flames.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

They are gonna go after prop 13 as their solution.

I suspect this number is a bit large but it should work for them.

[nomorecameljocks]

I notice there was no mention of paring/cutting/reducing/firing any administrators only productive people like teachers, nurses, maintenance staff. This seems to be a nationwide trend as the same situation is taking place in Oklahoma.
Local superintendent makes 100K plus car and unknown other perks and has 3 assistants. No one has figured out what, if anything they do(supposedly some are professional "grant writers" disgusting as that sounds). Teachers make about 1/3 of that and no car. Despite the financial crunch, no one has observed any superintendents offering to take any pay cut preferring to fire teachers instead.
Likewise, no one has put the super's and assistants jobs up for bid and it seems a big mystery how these salarys are determined as there is no comptetition, just a good old boy network of backslapping and giving raises.
There are hundreds of super's similarly situated in the state as every cross roads has a school district with full staff. I can just imagine the numbers and the waste in CA.

[lizma]

Could she leave California? Sounds like her talent is needed.

What burns me the most about school budgets is that the average ratio of teachers to administrators in the American public school system is 1 to 1. Seems like the bureaucracy budget is the one to cut.

(As a side note: Several years ago the National Science Foundation gave the D.C. public school system a major grant. Turns out they used the grant for limousine services for their administrators.)

I truly believe alot of this budget cutting is a scam. The demorats and the NEA screw the kids instead of their own, cry and moan look what is happening to our children, taxes get raised, and the wheel keeps turning. Makes me sick.

[TankerKC]

In northwestern Arkansas, almost every one of the crimes that is commited is done by a hispanic.

I don't believe that.

[viaveritasvita]

And a hearty AMEN! The only problem with all those leftie teachers out of work in Kalifornicate is that they may come to a neighborhood school near you.