History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
New schools Supt. Tom Torlakson cites worsening financial picture
- 01-07-2011
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Blog by Howard Blume/Los Angeles Times
New state Supt. of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson joined with education leaders in Sacramento on Thursday to call attention to what he called an education funding crisis. The message was not new but Torlakson said Californians need to understand just how bad things are: 30,000 teachers laid off statewide, as well as 10,000 support staff; 174 school districts in jeopardy of default; 16 of the state’s 30 largest school systems compelled to shorten the school year. He tabulated the total cuts at $18 billion over the last three state budgets. “The law won’t allow me to call up the National Guard,” he said, so he was trying to summon public outrage instead. He said obtaining more education funding is the central challenge to improving public schools. Efficiencies, spending flexibility and other reforms could save millions and improve schools but would never make up for the billions lost and needed, he said. As a partial remedy, Torlakson pushed for the extension of temporary tax increases and other revenue measures that were part of an earlier emergency state budget deal. These expiring provisions would shave an estimated $8 billion from a projected $28-billion state budget deficit in the next fiscal year. (more…)
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