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
Themes in the news for the week of November 16-20, 2009
- 11-20-2009
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A weekly summary of themes in education news provided by UCLA's Institute for Democracy, Education and Access.
Education Cuts Start in Kindergarten and Don't Stop
"I Can't Afford It"
By UCLA IDEA staff
More sobering news from Sacramento this week: legislative budget analysts projected a $21 billion budget deficit, which would lead to “…across-the-board cuts again” (Los Angeles Times). 2010 could be worse than this year when the state issued IOUs for the just the second time since the Great Depression, while cutting billions from education, healthcare, and social services. There is no more to cut from our schools,” said California Teachers Association President David Sanchez. “There is no more meat on this bone…The next step is amputation” (Los Angeles Times).
California Watch finds that many K-3 schools opened this year with fifty percent more students than specified in class size reduction bill passed in 1996. Since that bill, the state has invested over $22 billion to reduce class sizes; including $1.8 billion this year (The California Report, KGO-TV). Before the July budget cuts, school districts would lose a per-student incentive of $1,071 if they exceeded the class size limit. With the current crisis, those restrictions have loosened, and now schools continue to receive class reduction funds for class-size reduction even as class sizes rise to staggering levels. “My worry is that with 30 kids in the class, I won’t be able to reach out and touch, and get to every child in my classroom,” said Cheryl Accurso, a kindergarten teacher at Oliveira Elementary School in Fremont (Center for Investigative Reporting). Even before these recent increases, California already had the largest class sizes in the country for both high schools and middle schools, according to IDEA director John Rogers (New America Media).
Budget cuts have also shaken up California’s higher education. University of California Regents just increased student fees by 32 percent, raising average annual fees for undergraduates ($3,429 per student in 1999) to about $10,300 next year, plus another $1,000 for other campus-based charges. Room, board, and books may cost students an additional $16,000 (Los Angeles Times). Democracy Now! interviewed Laura Nader, professor of social cultural anthropology at UC Berkeley, who provided an historical and social perspective on the links between a vibrant democracy and a strong system of education. “You have the profit model of education, or you have the public model of education. The public model says it’s a public good. … [In] 1868 our university was founded, and it was founded as a public good. Everybody over the age of fourteen of moral character could come to the University of California. It was meant to be free. They didn’t achieve that completely. But even in 1952, it was only $28 a semester” (Democracy Now!). Ananya Roy, also a UC Berkeley professor, took part in the statewide strike to protest the fee hikes. Roy said that the budget cuts have “devastated the infrastructure of public education.” “We’re fighting for . . . .Californians and Americans,” said Roy. “But we’re also fighting for the future of our particular university, the UC system, and we’re fighting to be represented by leaders who believe in and can defend the mission of public education” (Democracy Now!).
Jeff Bleich, chairman of the California State University Board of Trustees says that the fee hikes are a result of many years of neglect towards public education. “To win votes, political leaders mandated long prison sentences that forced us to stop building schools and start building prisons. This has made us dumber but no safer. Leaders pandered by promising tax cuts no matter what and did not worry about how to provide basic services without that money. Those tax cuts did not make us richer; they've made us poorer” (Los Angeles Times).
Students from all across the state came to UCLA on Wednesday and Thursday to protest the fee hikes. Once the UC Regents approved the fee hikes, reality set in for some students. Jasmine Guerrero, a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, feared that she would have to drop out of school. “I can’t afford it,” she told the Los Angeles Times.
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