For immediate release
March 10, 2008 |
Contact:
Larry Slonaker,
SCCOE
(408) 453-6662 |
Superintendent: Cuts Would Harm Schools
Joe Fimiani, Interim Santa Clara County
Superintendent of Schools, recently published an opinion piece in
the San Jose Mercury News on the threat to funding for California's
schools. Below is a copy of the text.
With the mid-March deadline looming, the majority of Santa Clara
County's 32 school districts in recent days have been sending layoff
notices to teachers and other certificated staff members.
The districts don't know how many teachers will have to be laid off.
In fact, they don't even know whether teachers will have to be laid
off. But with the announced intention of Gov. Schwarzenegger to cut
state expenditures across the board by 10 percent next year, most
school administrators feel they have no recourse but to take their
best guess on how many notices to send.
It's difficult to convey the effect this has - both on those who
receive the notices, and on those who send them. As a former teacher
and principal who has been on the receiving end, I can say it is
unnerving, demoralizing, and thought-provoking. (One thought it
provokes is, "Why the heck am I in this profession?")
And today, as an administrator whose office just sent out 42 of
these notices, I am sick over the notion that we might lose
qualified, skilled classroom teachers who are extremely hard to
replace. Even if they are not laid off later, they certainly will
begin to explore other professional options now.
This exercise in budgetary uncertainty plays out annually; some
years it is more painful than others. This is one of those years.
Although the state's tortuous (and torturous) budget
process is notorious for putting state agencies in fiscal limbo
while the final figures are hashed out, the state's voters attempted
to lend some stability to the process in 1988, when they approved
Proposition 98.
The philosophy of the proposition was simple. School administrators
might not know the details of the state budget in advance of their
own financial planning and projections...but at least they could rely
on revenues being no worse than equal to those of the preceding
year.
But this year, the certainty is being threatened. The governor has
said he wants to suspend Proposition 98, which would allow him to
cut more than $4 billion in education funding. The sentiment among
some in Sacramento is that Prop. 98 will have to be suspended in
order to reach a deal on the budget.
This is a misguided, reckless idea. Lawmakers cannot simply jerk
away Prop. 98 as if they are magicians yanking a tablecloth from
underneath the plates and stemware, and expect everything to remain
standing and unbroken. California already ranks near the bottom
nationally in per-student funding. Near the bottom. And that is with
the protective base of Proposition 98 in place. Just how far are we
willing to let our schools plummet in funding? Are we destined for
the shame of becoming dead last?
In a state of magnificent wealth and innovation such as ours, how
can we justify this?
My greatest concern is the effect these draconian cuts would have on
student learning. We have made significant progress in our schools
in recent years. The trend line of test scores has been one of
gradual, steady increase since testing started. This is no time to
stop the flow of resources and energy that schools throughout the
state have channeled toward student achievement.
Our students did nothing to cause the financial difficulties we face
today. It does not make sense to fashion a solution at their
expense. They would suffer for it now and for the rest of their
lives. And, as part of the community in which they will live and
work, so will the rest of us.
This is why I have joined the superintendents of our county's school
districts, in an effort to fight the notion that Proposition 98 is
expendable, and subject to the whim of the governor and legislators.
Our children deserve better. Everyone seems to agree, year-in and
year-out, that the education of our children is one of our highest
priorities and most compelling duties.
It's time for our actions to live up to our words.
Date last updated: March 10, 2008
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