(I’ll be on Green960‘s Angie Coiro show today around 7:20PM to discuss the budget and its impact on education. Check it out online here. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)
The budget talks remain stalled over education. Essentially, the Governor wants the people of California to trust him, he promises that the $11 Billion owed to education will be repaid. Democrats want to clarify the ambiguities of Prop 98 to constitutionally bind the state to repay the money to education. This money is owed to the states under Prop 98, so in a sense this isn’t really adding anything. However, it would provide a legislative understanding that would avoid litigation should a future governor want to skip paying this money back. The John Myers/Anthony York Podcast looks at that today.
From the educational perspective, the whole playing field on which this debate is occurring is really the wrong one. Put simply, how do you really repay education? Sure, you can make up for the money for a school district two years later. But does that really help the children who had their art and music education eliminated? Does that undo the damage to a 3rd grader who didn’t get the personal attention when he or she was in 1st grade? Does it make up for ground that children have lost because the resources just weren’t there?
Education is not time-shiftable; there is no TiVo for funding. The development of children requires consistent nourishment. Stopping and starting programs hurts our students. The cuts that we are pretending for the moment will be temporary will last a lifetime.
Of course, Arnold sends his kids to private schools, so what’s the big deal anyway?
If Ahhnold gets to send his kids to Private school, then we should all have the same RIGHT.
Let’s open the playing field so our kids can go to any school we want and subsidize the amount of their education up to the mean per student as tabulated by the state.
That’ll show him!!
almost 30 years later, about cuts made to my school due to the aftermath of Prop 13.
For example, it was no longer possible to meet both the graduation requirements and the UC entrance requirements without attending summer school when I enrolled in high school.
My education was permanently transformed by attending classes with over 45 students in them, where younger 13- and 14- year old kids in the back were picked on mercilessly by the 18- and 19- year old seniors, out of sight of the teacher.
The cuts that we are making are disproportionately damaging to rural schools, because there are few other job opportunities for the appropriately qualified people in the area. Laid off teachers and aides will move, and new people will have to move in specifically for the job. And who can afford to move for a low paying job that might last only a year? In these rural areas, supplementary programs and even private school options are limited.
Where does the “community organizer” from Chicago send his kids?
Where did he send his kids when her served in the US Senate?
Didn’t Michelle Obama work for the city of Chicago in Mayor Daley’s office?
Where did Bill & Hillary Clinton send Chelsea?
Did Chelsea ever attend a single public school in her education?
Take pot shots at Arnold all you want, but the pot is just calling the kettle black in this really bad double standard.
This state was built on a robust public school system, k-12 and university.
Communities are centered around successful public schools.
Employers need educated people to hire.
Companies can’t recruit high-level people if their kids can’t feasibly attend schools here.
The answer is not, and never was, to blow up our schools. But they’ve been on downward spiral since prop 13; prop 98 tried to stem the tide a little, but now the funding is just not there.
Most people can’t afford private school (even with puny bs ‘vouchers’ that wouldn’t go very far anyway). Many people can afford private school but only at tremendous cost.
Successful public schools are critical but the public can’t get its head around why, or How. The bs conventional wisdom is that gov’t can do it all ‘on the cheap’ . . . and there’s no responsible political leadership in California to explain exactly why that is so flawed. We need a champion for well run, good faith government programs, including education. I wish to hell people could figure out this obviousness themselves.