Unless drastic budget cuts come at the local level, many California school districts may be unable to pay the bills in the next two years, state schools chief Jack O'Connell said Tuesday.
"Billions of dollars of state budget cuts to education have left school districts with deficits that school boards and administrators are attempting to address," O'Connell said at a news conference in San Jose. "The decisions they have been forced to make are heartbreaking: increasing class size, laying off teachers and classified staff; eliminating summer school; canceling arts, music, and sports. These are choices no educator in California wants to make. But the alternative is bankruptcy and entering state receivership."
California school districts are required to file interim budgets with certifications classified as positive, qualified or negative. A positive certification means the district will meet its financial obligations for the current and two subsequent years. A qualified certification means the district may not meet financial obligations, while a negative certification means a district will be unable to pay the bills for the remainder of the current year or the subsequent year.
A recent analysis found that 19 districts statewide have filed "negative" interim budget certifications; 89 districts filed "qualified" certifications. Two years ago, there were just five with negative budgets and 19 qualified. Several Bay Area districts Hayward, Oakland, Piedmont, Pleasanton, John Swett, Knightsen, Martinez and West Contra Costa are on the brink of financial distress with qualified budgets, and La Honda-Pescadero Unified in San Mateo is in worse shape with a negative second interim status.
"Unfortunately, the cuts to public education that are part of the state budget are likely to result in even more districts being added to this list," O'Connell said.
The state's $24.3 billion deficit could mean as much as $5.5 billion more in cuts to K-12 education. Nearly $12 billion was sliced from education in February..
So Sad! Let's start by changing the curriculum to include only academic studies like math, sciences, ENGLISH, and some other languages as SECOND languages.
Eliminate all "social engineering" courses like race appreciation subject, religious courses of any kind at all, including atheism. Restrict participation in all sports to only those students who have a genuine C+ average or better. Our school system exists to educate our students, not populate the NBA, NFL, ABL, etc. Lets look critically at the teachers who spend 8 hours a day talking to our students. Are they capable and enthusiastic about the courses they teach and do they limit their influence on our children to the subjects they teach? It is not a teacher's position to teach our children their moral values, or lack there of. It is the responsibility of the parents to shape their children's moral views of the world. The socialist views being impressed on our children are coming from the public education system in this country.
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