As the aftershocks of the $11.6 billion in budget cuts, 30,000 teacher and administrator pink slips and nearly 10,000 school employee layoffs reverberate through California’s public schools, the casualties are becoming more apparent every day.

Program cuts impacting minorities and other vulnerable students are particularly devastating. Whether having fewer bilingual teachers in the classroom or closing some schools in low-income areas, it’s the students who can afford it least that are paying the price for California’s state budget crisis. And as class sizes increase, many teachers will be forced to implement a one-size-fits-all strategy, trying to integrate both students who need extra help and more advanced students, all while accommodating unmanageable per-pupil ratios.

Below are excerpts from news articles in cities across California trying to cope with the impact of the budget cuts on minority students:

Diversity Will Be a Casualty of Teacher Layoffs –New America Media

Corine Coaloca will graduate this May from San Diego State University with two teaching credentials—one in bilingual education, and one in special education. A Mexican American, Coaloca, 24, wants to teach in a border community where her language skills and cultural background will translate well with students.

Another possible impact is that layoffs will mean less diversity in California’s current teacher workforce—and among aspiring teachers, like Coaloca. Although the California Department of Education doesn’t calculate the race or ethnicity of teachers being laid off, data on the teacher workforce indicates that a higher percentage of junior teachers are ethnic minorities. And last hired will be first fired, according to the process for layoffs.

In the 2000-2001 school year, about 25 percent of teachers—or some 77,000—were of an ethnicity other than white. In the 2007-2008 school year, about 29 percent —or 91,000—were. The good news, then, is that over the past six years, some 14,000 teachers with diverse backgrounds were added to public school classrooms. The bad news is that they are among the junior teaching force most likely to receive pink slips.

Budget Cuts Threaten Arvin English Classes – KERO Ch23

The state's budget woes could have a damaging effect on an English class for dozens of Spanish-speaking immigrants who live in southern Kern County.

The Farmworker Institute for Education and Leadership Development, or FIELD for short, provides English classes twice every weekday to Latino immigrants in Arvin.

The language barrier that challenges the students in their class every day is significant, but the funding barrier FIELD finds itself in is what has students and administrators worried.

“We'd be closing dreams,” Jose Solis, an ESL teacher for FIELD, said. “All of these students have a backpack filled with dreams, goals, and they want to change their lives.”

“Knowing English is important because if the parents don't know English, many times the language barrier gets passed on to their kids,” Solis said.

S.J. school budget cuts especially rough on Latino, low income families – Closures open wound

Districts across the state are contemplating drastic cuts to educational programs and school staffs.

To close a school is among the most controversial and emotional of those spending decisions, and in San Joaquin County, the children whom school closures tend to affect the most are those who already are academically vulnerable.

The public schools that have been closed in recent weeks – Tracy's Delta Island, Stockton Unified's Grant and Lodi Unified's Turner – are small but serve higher-than-average percentages of children who are Latino, who are poor and who don't speak English fluently.

Fixing California’s problem of chronically underfunding our public schools will take a multi-pronged approach, starting with immediate distribution of the federal stimulus funds, passing Prop 1B on May 19th to restore $9 billion of the funds that have been cut, and then creating long-term, stable revenue solutions to ensure that we never again rank dead last in how much we invest in our students.

The Education Coalition represents more than 2.5 million teachers, parents, administrators, school board members, school employees and other education advocates in California. For more information, please visit our website at: www.protectourstudents.org.