Republicans- let the people vote

 The California legislature made at least $ 12 billion worth of cuts that will cost doctors, nurses, medi cal patients, students, prisons, low income families,  in a brutal budget cut vote on Thursday.  The cuts were made by a majority vote as permitted by Proposition 25 passed last year.

However, the extensions of present taxes required to prevent even worse cuts requires a vote of the people. And, to get that vote, the Legislature needs to place these items on the ballot- and that requires a 2/3 vote.  The Democrats do not have the 2/3 votes needed.  To get to the ballot, at least 2 Republicans in each chamber must vote to place the extensions on the ballot.  They refuse.

Under the present cuts the U.C. and the CSU would each lose $500 million on top of the billions cut from prior years. And community college tuition would raise from $26 per unit to $36 per unit.  If the extensions are not passed, these  fee increases will grow dramatically in all three systems

What kind of state cuts food aid to hungry pregnant women and children in the middle of an economic crisis—while giving a giant tax break to billionaires?

A partial solution is to allow the voters to vote on these cuts and the tax extensions.

 Below From. MoveOn.com 

Seriously. WTF?!

The Republicans are winning the battle over the budget, hands down, even though what they're fighting for is, put simply, immoral. A cut of at least $400 million from a crucial program that puts food on the table for pregnant women and small children. Crippling the EPA. Completely eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, AmeriCorps, and high-speed rail.¹ 

Instead of creating jobs, the Republican budget would destroy 700,000 of them. Our only hope is a public outcry strong enough to stiffen Democrats' spines and cause Republicans to back down.

House Republicans are proposing reckless cuts that would undo our progress on health reform, prevent the EPA from protecting our air and water, and hurt our economy and job creation.

The cuts are particularly bad for education, and when we're talking about investing in children and schools, we're talking about investing in our future.

If the House Republican budget cuts are adopted:

     -- More than 16,000 classrooms would close;

     -- 55,000 teachers would lose their jobs;

     -- Nearly 200,000 pre-kindergarten children would lose access to Head Start; and

     -- More than 8 million college students currently receiving tuition assistance would see their Pell Grants cut.

The budget the President signs must have bipartisan support, but he's made it clear it also must invest in -- not sacrifice -- education.

Anything less is irresponsible and not worthy of our children.

A compilation of budget posts.

Fair Use

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. WE ARE MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN OUR EFFORTS TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. WE BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A 'FAIR USE' OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML. IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND 'FAIR USE,' YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

If any publisher or owner of a copyrighted product believes we have violated your copyright, please contact me and we will usually remove the article, except under the guidelines of fair use above.  We will then post material about the contested issue  from alternative sources.

California Budget crisis grows

States’ Budget Woes Go Deep Below the Surface

New Brookings report shows seeds of deficit troubles were planted years ago, and problems may be larger than they appear

Washington, D.C. — As state governors and lawmakers begin work on their daunting budget challenges in the aftermath of the Great Recession, new research from the Brookings Institution’s Mountain West project and the Morrison Institute for Public Policy at Arizona State University shows this situation actually has been building for several years, and may be worse that it first appears.

The new paper by the two research organizations, Structurally Unbalanced: Cyclical and Structural Deficits in California and the Intermountain West, looks at four states—Arizona, California, Colorado, and Nevada—and shows how these problems may go far beyond shorter- term revenue declines associated with the economic slowdown. Solving states’ budget challenges may be more difficult than is generally thought as they can involve massive, entrenched imbalances than will not disappear with economic recovery.

These four states have been among the hardest-hit by the Recession, and several are contending with deep, chronic imbalances that should serve as a caution to other states.

“The budgetary condition of many states is, if anything, worse than is recognized,” said Mark Muro, a senior fellow and the policy director of the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings. “The gravity of states’ short-term and especially longer-term deficits underscores that this is a time when state policymakers must break their bad habits and turn to more responsible budget planning practices that looks in a balanced way at the long-term fit of revenues to spending.”

Matthew Murray, the report’s lead author and a professor of economics at the University of Tennessee notes, “The ongoing deficit problems confronting these states have compelled the states to resort to an unattractive mix of tax increases, spending cuts and one-time fixes to bring budgets into alignment.

Brown's budget:

By Peter Schrag

Unless everything we know about Jerry Brown is wrong, and everything that he said even before his election was misleading, what we’re going to get today (1/10) is a bare bones budget – austerity in its most Draconian form – coupled with a challenge that if the legislature and the voters want anything more, they’ll have to provide the funds to pay for it.

If he were to be totally clear he’d say that California can’t dig its way out of its fiscal crisis without both major cuts and major increases in revenues.

Brown’s cuts will include significant reductions in the budgets for the University of California and the California State University, the elimination, as already announced, of the state’s redevelopment agencies, and a sharp reduction in the prison budget. It’s also likely that Brown will call for cuts in community college funding.

Indications are that Brown will propose no further cuts in the K-12 budget in this round, but issue a warning that if the legislature and voters don’t approve additional revenues in May or June – among them extensions of the income and sales tax and the vehicle license fees due to expire this year – then the schools will feel the ax as well.

California’s school funding has already been severely cut in the last few years and, as a percentage of personal income, now ranks among the lowest spending states in the nation. Additional cuts would almost certainly mean a still shorter school year, still larger classes and the elimination of whatever few school counselors, librarians, reading specialists and arts programs still remain in the schools.

…But even that may not be enough. Nothing may be enough until the doors actually begin to close, bridges start falling down and the fire brigade doesn’t come at all. It could happen as early this summer when, according to the same fiscal expert, Wall Street stops lending to California and the state is completely broke.

Excerpts from the longer piece. Read the entire piece at California Progress Report.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Schrag, whose exclusive weekly column appears every Monday in the California Progress Report, is the former editorial page editor and columnist of the Sacramento Bee. He is the author of Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future and California: America’s High Stakes Experiment. His new book, Not Fit for Our Society: Nativism, Eugenics, Immigration is now on sale.

Fair Use

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. WE ARE MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN OUR EFFORTS TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. WE BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A 'FAIR USE' OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML. IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND 'FAIR USE,' YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

If any publisher or owner of a copyrighted product believes we have violated your copyright, please contact me and we will usually remove the article, except under the guidelines of fair use above.  We will then post material about the contested issue  from alternative sources.

The state budget stall

This morning the state budget waits to be passed. Three Senators are holding up the passage, imposing more pain on working people, state vendors, and the schools. Why does this happen?
Because California has a 2/3 rule to pass a budget. This 2/3 rule can be ended by voting for Proposition 25 in the November election.
At present a small minority of legislators hold up the budget. It takes as few as 8 Senators. The 8 at present are usually  Republicans. They can do this because of the requirement for a 2/3 vote to pass the budget. They cause millions to lose their jobs and to face layoffs. Proposition 25 will lower the requirement to pass a budget from two-thirds ( 67 percent) to a majority ( more than 50 percent) vote of each house. Only 3 states in the U.S. have this 2/3 rule. The effect of the rule is to promote minority rule. Passing Prop. 25 is one step toward essential budget reform in California.
Update. The budget finally passed this AM.

Comparing the budget plans

The California Budget Project has an analysis of the proposed budget.
here. http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2010/100618_Budget_Comparision.pdf

On time budget initiative qualifies

On Friday, May 7, CFT and coalition partners AFSCME and CNA submitted 1.1 million signatures on petitions to place a Majority Vote Budget measure on the state ballot for November 2010.

California is one of just three states that require a two thirds Legislative supermajority to pass a budget.  Under these circumstances, a small minority of legislators controls the state budget process, and ensures the continued decline of funding for public education and other vital social services.  Democracy is supposed to be simple majority rule (50% plus 1).  We have lost democracy in our state budget process, with terrible effects for all of us.

Each year the state budget is held hostage by the legislative minority until the majority agrees to eliminate a tax, or until the majority is forced to agree to additional tax loopholes for special interests.  

Well, it is less than the Majority Rule initiative which did not make it to the ballot.  But, half a loaf is better than none.

Legislature fails the schools- lawsuit follows

See prior post.

California has set clear requirements for what schools are expected to teach and what students are expected to learn. The State has failed in its obligation to provide the resources necessary for students to meet the required standards.

• The State’s failure to support the required educational program adversely affects all students. Academic achievement measures show California’s broken school finance system denies students the opportunity to become proficient in the State’s academic standards.

• This lawsuit seeks to remedy the broken school finance system by (1) declaring that it is unconstitutional and (2) requiring state lawmakers to uphold their constitutional duty to design and implement a school finance system that provides all students equal access to the required educational program.

California Education Statistics

Staffing ratios

California’s ranking:

• 49th among all states in student-teacher ratios. (Digest of Education Statistics

[DES], 2007-08)

• 45th in instructional aides. (DES, 2007-08)

• 46th in district officials and administrators. (DES, 2007-08)

• 48th in total school staff. (DES, 2007-08)

• 49th in guidance counselors. (DES, 2007-08)

• 50th in librarians. (DES, 2007-08)

Finances

• California spends $2,131 less per pupil than the national average, ranking the State

44th in the country. (National Education Association [NEA], 2008-09)

• When adjusted for regional cost differences of providing education services (using

a national wage index), California spends $2,856 less per pupil than the national

average, or 47th among all states. (NEA, 2008-09, and National Center for Education

Statistics)

• California spends less per pupil than each of the largest 10 states in the nation –

almost $6,000 less per pupil than New York. (NEA, 2008-09)

California education budget is a shell game: Schrag

Yes, it is. He has it right.

Nonetheless, there was a lot of gubernatorial crowing when the governor signed the last of the legislation which, in the words of a Schwarzenegger press handout in January made “California highly competitive for $700 million in federal education funds.”  

But California’s real problem isn’t in charter caps or in barriers to the use of student test scores in evaluating teachers, stupid as those barriers seem. . Even where test scores can legally be used, there’s no certainty that they can be used wisely. Nor are charters any magic bullet: Some are excellent; many are no better than comparable public schools in their student outcomes, and often worse; some are rip-offs.

What’s currently tripping up California in Washington is that the state has been caught in a shell game. While the state acknowledges that the state is spending less per student this year than last (and will probably be spending still less next year), the governor claims that it’s spending an equal portion of its general fund on schools as in the past and thus is not failing in maintenance of effort.

But he can do that only through an accounting gimmick in his proposed budget. In a letter to state officials the federal Department of Education cites letters from California education and civil rights groups pointing out how the proposed budget “seeks to eliminate a State sales tax on gasoline and substitute…an excise tax on gasoline in order to remove revenues from the state’s general fund and effectively render the Proposition 98 [minimum school funding] guarantee inapplicable to those funds.”

In addition, the feds raise a series of other accounting questions about the state’s application for a new round of federal stimulus funds, funds which are conditioned on the state’s fulfilling the maintenance of effort commitment it made when it got the first round of education stimulus money last year. Until it answers the questions, the feds say, no decision will be made on whether California will get another round of federal stimulus money.

And under that problem lies a more fundamental one: the state’s chromic unwillingness to adequately invest in its schools and its ongoing disinvestment in its colleges and universities. Depending on how you count we’re now somewhere in the forties among the fifty states in what we spend per pupil in our K-12 schools – far below the U.S. average, and even further below most of the major states -- and lower than that if you measure education spending as a percentage of income. How short-sighted and stupid.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Peter Schrag, whose exclusive weekly column appears every Monday in the California Progress Report, is the former editorial page editor and columnist of the Sacramento Bee. He is the author of Paradise Lost: California’s Experience, America’s Future and California: America’s High Stakes Experiment. His new book, Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America will be published in 2010.

The costs of the economic crisis in the states

The current  economic crisis has forced the cutting of higher education, of k-12 education, and of social welfare systems. What caused this crisis ? It was caused by the greed and avarice of the financial class and aided by the politicians of both major political parties.

Major banks and corporations looted the economy creating an international meltdown.  Now, they have been rewarded with bail out money.  The crisis was not caused by students, teachers, public employees  nor recipients of social security.     Now we have cuts in parks,  in universities, in nurses, libraries.  School children did not create this crisis.  Foster care children did not create this crisis.

The major bankers, finance capitalists in the U.S. robbed the bank last year  – and the federal treasury.  They took hundreds of billions of dollars – and you and I will have to pay for it.    Goldman Sachs alone took $10 Billion.  For example,  Ken Lewis of Bank of America received an 81 million dollar pension.  They have not even been punished.  One thing we should do is arrest the top 100 executives and CEO’s of these companies, give them a fair trial, and throw them in jail.  Until we arrest some people – there will be no real changes.”

Our financial system as a whole crashed not because of one bank. Goldman Sachs certainly played a major role as did JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and CitiCorp, along with the many corporate finance institutions  like Bear Sterns, Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, WaMu, Depfa, Glitnir .  We had a systemic breakdown because nearly all of our policy makers, academics, politicians, and pundits promoted  a failed, self serving  ideology of self-correcting financial markets.

(Including specifically the econmics profession ) Finance  profiteers walked off with big bucks while contributing to the  crash  of the system. The looting continues to this day.

So, the financiers robbed the banks and created the Great Recession.  – and the government allowed them to do so.  Government policy, including the work of Geithner, Summers, and both the Bush and  the Obama Administration, regularly placed the interests of Wall Street ahead of the interests of working people.  Our economy was looted –we  lost $11 Trillion.   Now, working people are losing their homes.  Over 10,000,000 jobs have been lost.  Over 15 million people are unemployed. .  Nationally, unemployment  for African Americans  is over 15.4%,  for Latinos  it is over 12.7%. For African Americans and Latinos under 25 years of age; it is over 25%.  That is young people in the   African Americans and  Latino communities are in a Depression.

            42 of the states have financial crises.  We will have fewer teachers, fewer police officers, cuts in needed health care, cuts in school spending—all because a small cadre robbed the banks.  Today, this same group is making millions in bonuses and special payments, while the economy remains stuck in a recession.

            If you want some detail on how this was done, see:

Paul Krugman.  The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008.  (2009)

Dean Baker,  Plunder and Blunder; The Rise and Fall of the Bubble Economy.  (2009)

Nomi Prins.  It takes a Pillage; Behind the Bailouts, Bonuses, and Backroom Deals         from Washington to Wall Street.  (2009).

            Future posts will detail the costs of this crash to schools and the public sector. For an early analysis, see the posted summary on the California Budget Project web site. http://cbp.org/pdfs/2010/100108_Gov_Budget.pdf

Budget deal

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and California's legislative leaders apparently have agreed Monday on a plan to close the state's $26 billion budget shortfall.

The governor and legislators announced the compromise after more hours of closed-door talks on Monday.
Most analysts expect that California will face multibillion dollar deficits into the foreseeable future as the economy struggles to recover from the current crisis and tax revenue lags far behind.
Republicans incessantly demanded more school budget cuts and more cuts of social services.
Cuts made in higher education will hurt the economy for decades.

Students Rally against Budget Cuts

STUDENTS OF COLOR TALK BACK:
THOUSANDS RALLY AGAINST BUDGET CUTS IN SACRAMENTO
CAMPAIGN FOR QUALITY EDUCATION GATHERS TO SUPPORT
“100 PERCENT PREPARED FOR COLLEGE AND CAREER” CAMPAIGN AND ASSEMBLY BILL 8
SACRAMENTO, CA. In the midst of massive cuts to the state education budget, more than a
thousand students and allies from across California converged on Sacramento to give a long overdue
voice from students of color on education and to tell the Governor and Legislature, “Don’t Pink Slip
Our Education!” In addition to a morning rally and march around the capitol, the student leaders
delivered over 5,000 signed postcards of support to the Governor, testified before the Assembly
Education Committee, and met with more than forty legislators to build support for Assembly Bill 8
and Assembly Concurrent Resolution 54.
The mobilization was organized by the Campaign for Quality Education – an alliance of over 25
organizations that work for educational justice and equity in low-income, immigrant, communities of
color – as part of their “100 Percent Prepared for College and Career” Campaign, an effort to ensure
that all California students have the educational resources to go on to college or a well-paying career
upon graduating from high school.
“I came here today to give a students a voice about their education,” said Scottie Gonzalez, a
sophomore at Overfelt High School in San Jose, who emceed the rally. “I came to say I care about my
education and that I deserve a school that will get me ready for the future.” Gonzalez called the current
budget crisis a “budget opportunity,” a chance to re-prioritize education and to fund schools more
equitably so that all California students had access to college prep courses, counselors, and qualified
teachers. “Right now,” he said, “If you go to certain schools, you go to college. If you don’t go those

Assembly hearings were held.

California Drop out crisis

New Report Underscores Education Reform Needs

Senator Gloria Romero
Current High-School Dropout Rate Means 1 in 3 Students Will Fail
Today we again highlight the need for reform in California’s education system based on a report released yesterday by the California Dropout Research Project stating one in three high-school students will drop out of school before graduating.
It is simply unconscionable that we can project a failure rate in educating future generations. I’m not willing to wait one more year—and loose another 140,000 students—to enact serious reforms. We must make changes now that will enable kids to succeed in school and put California back on a path to real and long-term economic recovery.
According to the report in California, students abandon middle and high schools at the rate of 140,000 per year—equlivant to the populations of Pasadena, Elk Grove or the entire County of Napa—and cost taxpayers $46 billion annually in crime, social welfare, health, public assistance and other taxpayer costs. Even in the best of times, the high costs of dropouts to the state are a drain but, today starting new engines of economic growth are the rallying cry of all state and national governments eying recovery.
California’s needs an education system that produces more skilled high-school graduates today more than at any other time in our past.
In fact, for every $500 of wealth that households headed by a high-school dropout accumulate, households headed by high-school graduates possess approximately $5,000. This means that there would be an additional $74 billion in collective wealth in the United States if every household were headed by an individual with at least a high-school diploma, according to a 2008 report by the Alliance for Excellent Education.
The Public Policy Institute of California predicts there will be twice as many high-school dropouts in California in 2025 as there will be jobs to support them. Meaning twice as many high-school dropouts will have no hope for employment. This evidence underscores the importance of early intervention and prevention.
In March the Senate Committee on Education held an informational hearing with the objective of viewing education initiatives through the lens of economic recovery. The hearing and outlined the steps needed to ensure that a skilled workforce, representative of the state’s diversity, industry and need, will be ready to fuel the next stage of economic growth in the state. Further, this year I along with Senator Steinberg have also co-authored SB 651 that would use data to assist educators in developing better public accountability and a stronger focus on dropout prevention.
California’s economic development strategy must focus on growing human capital, and human capital starts with education. Education is the single most important factor in ensuring a capable and competent society in which every member has the opportunity to succeed.
A recent report by UCLA’s Institute for Democracy and the California Educational Opportunity Report, Education and Access (IDEA) and All Campus Consortium on Research for Diversity (ACCORD), found widespread correlation to renewed attention of the relationship between educational investment and the state’s economic health. The “achievement gap” represents the difference between what California public school students achieve today versus what they will require to gain work in a global economy.
To that end, Senate Democratic members have introduced a package of legislation “Jobs of Tomorrow” which asserts the real link between education and the economy. These bills seek to enhance California’s education system through:
• SB 675 (Steinberg) – Clean Technology and Renewable Energy Job Training, Career Technical Education, and Dropout Prevention Act of 2010
• SB 471 (Romero and Steinberg) – Education: stem cell research
• SB 515 (Hancock) – Career technical education
• SB 43 (Alquist) – Health professions
• SB 725 (Hancock) – Regional occupational centers or programs: California Apprenticeship Preparation Program
• SB 651 (Romero and Steinberg) – Drop out tracking
• SB 747 (Romero) – Career technical education- aerospace
Posted on April 14, 2009
___________________________________
Response

Only the Dropout tracking bill by Romero and Steinberg has much to day about dropouts.

What could the legislature do to reduce the extreme California dropout rate?
1.Pass a responsible budget for K-12 education. You have not done this in over twenty years. Provide funds for adequate counselors in the schools. ( all the other states have counselors). We should get to about 1 counselor for each 300 students in high school. Since Prop.1 California has fewer than 1 counselor for each 550 students. The result. The only students receiving counseling are the college bound students. There are practically no counselors working toward dropout prevention.
2. Provide adequate number of social workers for the schools. Both mental illness and gang membership begin by about grade 7-8. We need social workers in these schools. ( Other states have them). A large part of the dropout problem is caused by home and community crises. We need social workers to assist students with these crises.

Instead of these practical responses, your voting record produces more students per class and more useless tests of teachers- such as the TPA and PACT Assessments. See prior posts on PACT. You can use the search bar above.

House Republicans scramble for the money

House Republicans, as a group, may take great pride in the goose egg they offered President Obama's stimulus package. But now the unanimous opposition is struggling to bring that money home.

Republicans will be working hard to make sure the money they opposed ends up benefiting their home districts, highlighting the political tightrope they walk in this economic crisis. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is watching House Republicans -- and reading local media -- closely and is only too happy to highlight any happy talk about a stimulus Republicans voted against.

Back in his home district, Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO) found some nice things to say about the plan.

"Within the stimulus package there is some Pell Grant money, which is a good thing. It helps students be able to pay for their education and that's kind of a long term stimulus effect there. I mean obviously that's not gonna provide a job in the next 120, 180 days, but the ability of someone to get an education is an economic development tool," Luetkemeyer said at a local college. He was there, in another inside-outside Washington twist, to celebrate an earmark for a college building.

He lamented that there would be far fewer such earmarks in the future. "If they go back to the rules, it will make it very difficult to get earmarks through the next two years because number one we don't have any more money, we just blew it all on this stimulus package. Although, we're gonna have to print some more in order to be able to bail out the financial institutes and the automobile manufacturers," said Luetkemeyer.

Ken Spain, a spokesman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said that the quotes aren't hypocritical, but rather demonstrate that Republicans did support a stimulus in general, just not the one Democrats presented to them.

"We would like to thank the DCCC for circulating these comments. They are proof-positive that Republicans stood willing and ready to support commonsense measures in the stimulus package until Nancy Pelosi unfortunately chose to undercut President Obama's message of bipartisanship by including absurd pork-barrel spending projects such as millions to protect a mouse in the San Francisco Bay, golf carts for government bureaucrats, and STD prevention funds. Republicans said 'yes' to a true stimulus package, but unanimously said 'no' to putting the politics of pork before the needs of the middle class," said Spain.

Rep. Don Young (R-AK) put out a press release saying that he "won a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small business owners last night in H.R. 1, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act."

In California's Inland Empire, battered by the economic downturn, the mostly Republican delegation is happy the stimulus passed, too, according to local news reports.

"Even the Republican lawmakers who oppose the bill say such projects are needed in the region," the local paper reports.

"All along he has believed infrastructure spending, in particular, should provide a boost to the Inland Empire's economy," a spokesman to Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) said.

"While we philosophically have different opinions, we're obligated to make sure this money is spent properly," said Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA). "All of us in the Inland Empire will do what we can to direct as much money as we can."
From: The Huffington Post.

State of the Schools in California : O'Connell

State of Education Address, February 3, 2009 Excerpts
Superintendent O'Connell on the status of education in California.
Back to State of Education Address, February 3, 2009
Good morning. Thank you all for being here.
Today in California we face a defining moment for public education. We gather at a moment of great uncertainty. But I want you to know that I stand before you today hopeful. Hopeful for the future of our country, hopeful for California, and hopeful for our public schools, even at this difficult time.
Yes, these times are turbulent with no clear skies ahead. The national economic downturn and the budget shortfall facing our state are creating havoc in every one of California's schools and districts. Every teacher, every principal, and every superintendent I speak with wonders how we will make it through the next school year.
Friends, the state of public education is precarious. Beyond the immediate crisis, and even more alarming to me, is the long-term future of our common education system. If we continue down the road we are on our public schools and our state itself face certain, perhaps irreparable, damage.
Let's look at the immediate crisis: With more than half of the school year completed, our schools are faced with staggering, immediate budget cuts. The budget being negotiated may result in current-year reduction to education funding of $10 billion. These cuts are nothing short of breathtaking:
Hayward Unified plans to lay off as many as 170 teachers and increase class sizes from 20 to 32 students.
In Merced, as in many other school districts, school bus transportation is on the chopping block.
In Lake Elsinore, not only are veteran teachers being given incentives to retire, schools are putting duct tape over light switches to save on electricity.
And on and on all over this state.
And as painful as these midyear cuts are, we can expect worse over the next two years: Larger class sizes and fewer classroom aides. Outdated textbooks, longer bus rides or no buses at all. Less support for English learners and for our neediest schools. Fewer librarians, counselors and nurses. Districts are choosing between hiring a math teacher and buying math books. Most tragically, these cuts come at the same time that the need for investment in better schools and more support services has grown.
The number of homeless students in our schools increased nearly 19 percent in the 2006-07 school year, and we know that percentage is rapidly growing. Hunger is also on the increase. Our schools served 28 million more free school lunches in 2007-08 than the year before. Historically, subsidized school lunches have increased by 1 percent a year. Between September 2007 and September 2008, we saw an alarming 12 percent rise.
The students behind these percentages are the students who need more time in school, not less, more adults on staff who care, not fewer.
We know downturns like this hit the most vulnerable among us the hardest. It's the children in our schools struggling to learn the English language or those who come from poverty or who live with a learning disability that will be the first to feel the pain of cuts. Sadly, this comes after a long-term California focus on closing achievement gaps that is just now starting to show modest progress.
Let me be crystal clear, all of our progress as a high-expectation state is at risk unless we commit ourselves now to being innovative, flexible, and focused as never before. It is time for us to prioritize and to focus on only those things we know are working to close the achievement gap and help all students succeed.
Read the entire statement at www.cde.ca.gov

FAIR USE NOTICE: THIS SITE CONTAINS COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL THE USE OF WHICH HAS NOT ALWAYS BEEN SPECIFICALLY AUTHORIZED BY THE COPYRIGHT OWNER. WE ARE MAKING SUCH MATERIAL AVAILABLE IN OUR EFFORTS TO ADVANCE UNDERSTANDING OF ENVIRONMENTAL, POLITICAL, HUMAN RIGHTS, ECONOMIC, DEMOCRACY, SCIENTIFIC, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES, ETC. WE BELIEVE THIS CONSTITUTES A 'FAIR USE' OF ANY SUCH COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL AS PROVIDED FOR IN SECTION 107 OF THE US COPYRIGHT LAW. IN ACCORDANCE WITH TITLE 17 U.S.C. SECTION 107, THE MATERIAL ON THIS SITE IS DISTRIBUTED WITHOUT PROFIT TO THOSE WHO HAVE EXPRESSED A PRIOR INTEREST IN RECEIVING THE INCLUDED INFORMATION FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES. FOR MORE INFORMATION GO TO: HTTP://WWW.LAW.CORNELL.EDU/USCODE/17/107.SHTML. IF YOU WISH TO USE COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL FROM THIS SITE FOR PURPOSES OF YOUR OWN THAT GO BEYOND 'FAIR USE,' YOU MUST OBTAIN PERMISSION FROM THE COPYRIGHT OWNER.

Economic crisis and the schools

Where We Stand _CTA.

January 15, 2009

California schools and students are suffering, and local school districts are already at the tipping point. The $3.5 billion in cuts made last year have led to larger class sizes, more than 10,000 layoffs of teachers and other education support staff, and the further elimination of art, music, and career technical education programs. Some schools have even shut down their libraries. The governor’s latest budget proposal would just make things worse.

The Governor’s proposal to cut an additional $10.8 billion over the next 18 months is an irresponsible assault on California’s students and schools. And adding further insult, the governor is redefining Proposition 98, the state’s minimum school funding law, to take $7 billion from our schools that would never be repaid, in direct violation of the constitutional guarantee. Lawmakers need to raise revenues and solve California’s budget problem without further detrimental cuts to an already underfunded public school system.

These additional cuts will further devastate schools and colleges, causing thousands of additional layoffs, even larger class size increases, more program cuts, and possible school closures. Some local schools are talking about increasing all class sizes to 40 students, while others are planning to eliminate all sports programs. The cuts proposed by the Governor will totally change public schools in California as we know them, robbing our children of a well-rounded education and leaving an academic scar on an entire generation.

It’s long past time for lawmakers to stop playing partisan politics and pass some revenue increases. Investing in public education is the best investment we can make in the future of our children and our state. We warned the Legislature last year that relying on more borrowing would just make the situation worse – and it has. Every day they don’t take action, our kids pay a bigger price.

Education Week recently released a report that shows California has dropped from 46th to 47th in per-pupil funding, and lags behind the national average by $2,400. Those figures don’t even include the latest cuts or indicate where the state would be ranked under the governor’s new proposal. Lawmakers should be working to improve support for students, not making things worse.

The governor’s proposal to cut the school year by five days does nothing to improve student learning. California students cannot continue their recent progress if the state takes away important instruction time. The governor’s proposal hurts students in poorer communities most by eliminating all funding designed to help lower-performing schools.

CTA opposes any changes to the state’s successful Class Size Reduction program. Smaller class sizes are key to improving student learning, especially for ethnic minority children and English learners. The governor’s proposal for complete and permanent “flexible” use of all categoricals is simply encouraging school districts to rob Peter to pay Paul. The fact is, flexibility without adequate funding provides false hope that schools can do more with even fewer resources.

The use of deferrals and accounting gimmicks in the Governor’s proposal further shortchanges schools this year and will lead to cash flow problems for school districts. It pushes the problem down the road and does nothing to address the need for new and reliable revenue sources for public schools.

For our community colleges the proposed cuts could reduce enrollment by at least 5 percent, force community colleges to turn away nearly 263,000 students, and seriously impact thousands of unemployed Californians who recently enrolled to seek training for new jobs.

The Governor’s proposed 10 percent cut to the UC and CSU systems would be devastating. The California State University announced the cuts will force CSU campuses to turn away at least 10,000 students who apply for admission next fall. It is the first time that the nation's largest four-year university has officially endorsed a system-wide concept of refusing admission to eligible students.

California budget failure

Since 1978 – Proposition 13- the California public schools have been under funded. Since the mid 1980’s California has had a dysfunctional prison and parole system with a constantly increasing budget.
The current legislature and the prior legislature can not pass a budget significantly as a consequence of the 2/3 rule. And, the Governor’s office issues press releases but provides no leadership.
Each side guards its territory and vilifies the other side. But, the state is not being governed.
Special interests pass laws but the public interest is being ignored. Over time an un governed state declines economically- as California is declining.
The public disapproval ratings of the legislature and the governor reveal that the voters recognize this incompetence.
The political stalemate in Sacramento makes the national recession worse. More workers will loose their jobs, more school budgets will be cut.

"Without an immediate fix to the state's estimated $40 billion budget deficit, California could run out of cash next month. State finance officials warn that the state would have to give IOUs to state vendors and elected officials, as well as delay refunds for taxpayers."
Perhaps we should respond in kind. Perhaps all of the taxpayers in the state should send in IOU's rather than their tax payments.
We would hope that soon some adults begin to provide leadership in Sacramento.

The California budget + Schools

This State Budget is a Massive Corporate Boondoggle That Kicks California's Fiscal Future into a Ditch On The Side Of the Road

By Bill Lockyer
Treasurer
State of California

This budget doesn’t even kick the can down the road. Instead, it kicks California’s fiscal future into a ditch on the side of the road. It’s compromise in the worst sense: It compromises our ability to give our kids better schools, provide our families better health care and make our communities more livable. It’s the most irresponsible budget of the past half-century.

The plan contains several elements that constitute fiscal folly. But the most offensive provide multi-billion dollar handouts to big business in the form of permanent tax breaks. This giveaway makes the budget a massive corporate boondoggle that does nothing to fix our structural deficit and, in fact, will make it substantially worse.

The attempt to strengthen the rainy-day fund is commendable. But the reserve will be a mirage until the structural gap between revenues and expenditures is closed. This budget, by playing year-round Santa Claus to wealthy corporations, pushes that goal further into a dim future. There were alternative, more responsible ways to deal with taxes, ways that wouldn’t bust tomorrow’s budgets. The failure to pursue those options is disheartening and a disservice to the public.

The first tax break lets corporations, when they lose money in any given year, obtain refunds on taxes they paid in prior years. Businesses often suffer losses when the economy turns sour, just as California’s families do. When the economy’s bad, the resulting revenue decline also puts the State in a fiscal hole.

So under this budget, the State will be cutting refund checks for corporate behemoths while it’s cutting services for people. When fully implemented, this so-called “carry-back” provision – rejected many times by the Legislature – will cost the State more than $500 million, every year, forever.
From California Progress Report:

From: CTA
Today lawmakers are scheduled to vote on a "new deal" budget package that is just as disastrous for students, public schools, colleges, health care and other vital services as the “get out of town” budget they passed in the wee morning hours Tuesday.

Today's "new deal" budget package, like the earlier version, still does absolutely nothing to solve the state’s structural deficit, includes no ongoing revenues and puts everyone in California at risk. What's even worse is it still cuts $3 billion from public education and never restores those funds.


This "new deal" budget is still full of gimmicks that rely on borrowing from the lottery and future state revenues in order to close the $15 billion budget deficit, which sets our schools up for more funding shortfalls next year and undermines Prop. 98, the voter supported minimum school funding guarantee.

This "new deal" budget guarantees that the amount California spends on our students remains at the bottom nationwide.


Our students and schools deserve better.

Legislators and teachers

The governor and legislative leaders often bash teachers and demand more accountability. Well lets see.
The Legislature has a 28% approval rating by the voters. The governor has a 46% approval rating.
Teachers on the other hand have an approval rating that varies between 64% and 80 % approval. We are now 76 days without a state budget. Now, where is the accountability?

Budget Stalemate: Day 71

A Senator Expresses Disappointment in Inability to Pass a California Budget With Balanced Solutions

By Tom Torlakson
California State Senate

With the state budget stalemate now over two months old, I am extremely disappointed in the State Legislature's inability to pass a budget that includes a balanced solution to the $15.5 billion projected deficit.

THE CONSEQUENCES OF LATE BUDGETS

I know the failure to pass a state budget has a real and deep impacts on our community. The ramifications are all too real for people and organizations providing necessary services. My staff and I have talked to school leaders, small business owners supplying health care and food to state institutions, providers of homes for people with developmental disabilities, child care providers, students who will soon not receive their CalGrants, senior day care center operators, and others who are facing the consequences of the budget gridlock every day.

State Controller John Chiang reports that he has been unable to make $4.25 billion in payments so far because no new state budget is in place. There are $7.6 billion in payments that will go unpaid if the budget stalemate were to tragically continue through the end of September.

It may cost up to a half billion dollars to borrow money to pay the state's bills in the absence of a budget. That is money that instead should go fund services Californians require. We need to act!

MAKING CONCESSIONS, SEEKING COMPROMISE

My colleagues in the Democratic caucus have offered numerous concessions over the past few months, without success. A half year's work on the budget produced a balanced budget agreeable to the majority of both houses of our legislature. But this carefully crafted budget was unable to gain the required two-thirds support in the legislature.

Since June, Democrats have reluctantly agreed to billions in additional cuts to our schools, child care, children's health, medical providers, and other programs. Our budget to close corporate loopholes and to reinstate higher tax brackets on the wealthiest Californians was rejected by the Republicans, so we have accepted the Governor's temporary sales tax increase. We have, so far, rejected plans to borrow from Proposition 1A (2004) local government or Proposition 1A (2006) transportation funds.

SENATE REPUBLICANS OFFER BUDGET PROPOSAL YESTERDAY

We were finally able to debate a detailed budget plan from my Republican colleagues on the Senate floor yesterday. Unfortunately, it was a budget that would starve our schools at a time when they need more resources to meet rigorous federal and state accountability standards.

The Republican budget literally gambles with our school funding. It uses a risky and legally dubious securitization scheme to "fill the gap" between funding schools at the minimum level and achieving the $1.9 billion higher spending amount Democrats put forward in the spirit of compromise. The Governor's Department of Finance believes this lottery proposal is not legally viable because such securitization requires a vote of the people.

So the Republicans want to rely on gambling and "rolling the dice" to fund our schools. It is highly probable that when their lottery scheme does not work, schools would receive $600 million less this year than they did last year. Schools have already made series of cuts--and then cut more again.

I adamantly urged a NO vote on this irresponsible, destructive budget--which would compound harm by an on-going reduction of $2 billion per year in the Proposition 98 schools guaranteed funding. It is a gamble we must not accept!

This scheme is on top of spending reductions many school districts have put in place already--a situation which has led to increased class sizes, dismantling of career technical education courses, elimination of arts and music, reductions in technology, and other decisions that will harm our students and our state over the long-term.

STARVING OUR SCHOOLS

As I told my Senate colleagues on the floor, given our students' needs, we should be debating increasing public education spending by billions of dollars--not starving our schools even further. Last year's Getting Down to Facts adequacy study estimates that California should spend at least $15 billion to $24 billion a year more to ensure every student can meet "academically rigorous content standards and performance standards in all major subject areas."

Should we really talk about further starving our schools of needed resources when we rank 45th in eighth grade math achievement and 43rd in eighth grade science achievement? When we rank 46th in per pupil spending when adjusted for regional cost-of-living differences?

We must not pass a budget that dishonors and ignores our students' positive aspirations and dreams. That rejects the promises of our state's education master plan. That leaves our students ill-prepared to compete in the 21st century global economy.

There is no doubt that spending cuts are required this year and we must always strive to spend every dollar efficiently. But, as I have previously argued, we must make certain that any resolution to this current budget deadlock does not leave California incapable of providing a public education system offering a rigorous and relevant curriculum, the infrastructure needed to support continued economic vitality, services for the most vulnerable members of our society, or a health care system able to care for and protect our residents.

Read the entire post at California Progress Report.

Senator Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch) represents the Seventh Senatorial District, including most of Contra Costa County. He is the chair of the Senate’s Appropriations Committee and the Senate Select Committee on Schools and Community. Senator Torlakson is also a member of the Senate Education and Transportation and Housing Committees. A teacher and coach, Senator Torlakson is the Chair and Founder of the California Task Force on Youth and Workplace Wellness, a group seeking to raise the profile of health and fitness in the public schools and in the workplace. He is currently on the faculty at Los Medanos College in Pittsburg, California.

The Legislature, the schools, and accountability

Budget stalemate: Day 70
The California legislature since 1994 has imposed accountability on the public schools. They have spent millions on tests. They have insisted that thousands of hours of professional work be dedicated to accountability. Their accountability work has a very weak record of reliability and validity ( See Collateral Damage: How High-Stakes Testing Corrupts America’s Schools. Nichols and Berliner.

Now, the legislature does not pass a budget for over 70 days.
California’s schools are open and the teachers are at work. Over 6 million children have returned to school. Some 477,000 will be entering first grade in over 5,000 schools. Each of these schools have a budget and each of these budgets are in confusion while the state decides what to do about their budget crisis. At least 25% of the schools will not be ready for the students because the school doesn’t know what its budget will be.
Will the school have an ELL teacher or two?
Will there be a reading coach?
Will class size be 24 or 32? Which really means we will have to re-organize each of the classes and the teachers.
What will happen to the new programs established last year under the Quality Education Act?
Shall the district hire a new teacher or only a 30 day substitute ?
Do we have the money for an ELL specialist or will the money be for an Algebra teacher? And when we finally hear if we have the money, will the well qualified Algebra teacher have moved to another state where this annual disruption of their lives does not occur? Really, would you wait 2-3 months each year to see if you had a job?
And, even in mainstreamed classes, will there be two English Learners or eight?
These are but the start of the many decisions that need to be made. Rather than beginning school in late August, far too many classrooms will have to wait until October while the budget gets decided and allocations are made.

This is a state that ranks 47th. in math and about 48th in reading. A state budget impasse each year creates 4-6 weeks of school disruption, confusion, and disorganization.
And then the legislature calls for school accountability? Where is their accountability?
Duane Campbell