As many of you might know California is in another budget crisis. This Governor, who was swept into office on the promises to fix this states budget, has proven that he is no better at handling the budget than his Democratic predecessor. Governor Schwarzenegger’s actions of cutting taxes and failing to get this states spending under control has helped lead this state into a $14.5 billion deficit. --- That’s right, BILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT.
So what is our Governor solution to get us out of this mess? A 10% cut of everything across the board, including to education. A 10% cut in education comes to about $4.8 billion dollars cut from this states education funding, this state that is already ranked 47th by Education Week in per student spending (and that number took into account regional cost differences!). California is spending $1,900 less per student than the national average. West Virginia, Louisiana and Mississippi all out spend California in education.
The $4.8 billion cut is being passed on to school districts that have been told to cut programs in order to save money. My school district, Mt. Diablo Unified School District has proposed cutting 4th and 5th grade music, Freshman sports, Liberians and library budgets, High School VP’s, Special Education services and much much more. It wasn’t until a virtual student uproar did the school board decide to keep 4th and 5th grade band and freshman sports, yet many of the before mentioned programs have been cuts, and it is the children of my school district that are left to suffer.
When will the government stop scarifying the needs of child for their own political gain? It is time that we as young voters stood up for our needs and tell the government that a 10% cut in education is outrageous! It’s time for us as young people to fight for our needs, if we don’t fight for them, no one will.
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