Friday, April 04, 2008

Education Budget Crisis

This past January, Governor Schwarzenegger announced a projected $14.5 billion deficit in the state budget for 2008-2009. As a result, the Governor has proposed $4.8 billion in cuts to K-12 education funding. That figure translates into a staggering loss of $460 million in revenue for LAUSD in the upcoming school year, and the cuts could worsen after the Governor's May budget revise.

Needless to say these proposed cuts could have a disastrous impact on the District's ability to provide a quality education to our students. The proposed cuts are equivalent to LAUSD closing 22 high schools, or shutting down all District schools and offices for nearly two weeks.

The proposed budget cuts are unacceptable and would have a tremendous impact in the classroom. The cuts come at a particularly bad time when the District is seeing improvements in academic achievement and is embarking on some key reform initiatives.

In recent months, the Superintendent and his cabinet have been working to develop budget recommendations to propose to the Board of Education. Superintendent Brewer will present his budget recommendations to the Board after the Governor presents his May budget revise.

For more information about the budget impact on LAUSD, please visit ttp://www.lastudentscount.org/

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