Terminator Budget Cuts Spur Protests Across Calif.

Like many students in the Pasadena Unified School District (PUSD), and across California, my daughters Amelia and Sarah, 11-year old twins, have been making posters opposing Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's draconian budget cuts for public schools: "We Like Our Schools." "Arnold: Don't Terminate Our Teachers." "Cuts Hurt Kids." "Fund Schools, Not War." (That last one is really intended for George Bush, not Gov. Schwarzenegger.)

The signs will be displayed Friday afternoon at protests in front of every school in the 20,000-student PUSD system. Parents, students, teachers, office staff, administrators, school board members, and concerned residents will be out in force, waving banners and alerting passing motorists about the looming cuts that will devastate public schools in the state. The protests are a warm-up for a big march through Pasadena on Saturday, May 31. Similar activities have been happening across the state. More than 4,000 teachers, parents and students packed the stands of affluent Mission Viejo High School's outdoor stadium in Orange County. Hundreds of their counterparts in working class Alhambra held a rally at the school district headquarters. At San Jose's Overfelt High School, students handed out postcards urging the governor, "Please don't kidnap my dreams." The Angry Tired Teachers, a rock band from Hayward, are taking a statewide "Cuts Hurt" bus tour.

In many years of activism, I've rarely seen such an outpouring of genuine grassroots anger and mobilization. Many of the parents engaged in these protests have never been politically active before. Some are involved with their school's PTA or as boosters for their kids' sports teams, but many of the protesters have been recruited by word-of-mouth and by email through other networks -- churches, soccer leagues, and neighborhood groups. The protest planning meetings focus on nuts-and-bolts but are also full of spirit. The parents, teachers, students, and community allies -- who reflect the district's racial and income diversity -- got their juices flowing coming up with slogans and chants for the rallies and May 31 march. One parent suggested they steal an idea from protesters in Alameda, in northern California, who lined the city's main streets with trash cans, got students to stand in them, and held up signs: "My future is too valuable to throw away." (Readers who want to learn more about the PUSD protests should contact Tracy Mikuriya at [e-mail])

Protesters at the Scanlon Center in Alhambra Wednesday.
(Walt Mancini/Pasadena Star News)

Like many urban districts, the Pasadena school system has been traumatized by forces beyond its control. Middle class "white flight" from the public schools began in reaction to busing in the late 1960s. In the 1980s, immigration brought an influx of Latino students. In the past few years, gentrification and skyrocketing housing costs have pushed many low-income families, particularly Latinos and African Americans, out of the area, resulting in declining student enrollment, which damaged the district's budget and forced the closure of several schools. Even so, about two-thirds of PUSD's students are low-income, many of them from families where English is a second language.

Despite these trends, the Pasadena schools have started to make a turnaround. Test scores have increased, exciting new programs for both gifted and disadvantaged students have been put in place, and a growing number of middle-class families are returning to the public schools. Under Superintendent Edwin Diaz, hired last year, day-to-day management has improved, restoring confidence in the public schools among local business leaders, city officials, and parents.

But like every school district in California, Pasadena schools are still suffering from the shock waves produced by Proposition 13, the statewide initiative passed in 1978 that put a ceiling on local property taxes. Since then, school districts have been totally dependent on the state for school funding. Once among the best public education systems in the nation -- from kindergarten through college -- California has now sunk to one of the worst.

California ranks 46th in the nation in per-student spending, according to Education Week -- $7,081 compared with the national average of $8,973. It ranks 49th in the number of students per teacher, resulting in large average class sizes. It is at the very bottom in the ratio of counselors, librarians, and school nurses to students. It ranks 37th in school spending as a percentage of state taxable resources.

Now, to make matters even worse, Gov. Schwarzenegger has proposed about $4 billion in inflation-adjusted cuts for the state's public schools. School districts around the state have already sent lay-off notices to thousands of teachers and other personnel. Morale among teachers, who are frustrated by the chronic job insecurity that comes as a result of the state's fiscal instability, has suffered a huge blow. School districts in Texas, Nevada, Virginia, Hawaii, and other states have put up billboards, taken out newspaper ads, and sent recruiters to California to lure teachers away.

Anticipating the state cuts, school administrators in Pasadena have been forced to plan to slice $14 million from the district's $120 million general fund budget. This comes on top of more than $10 million in cuts over the past few years. Long-term district employees have already received pink slips. Parents and teachers worry that arts and music programs, sports, special math, literacy and other programs will soon be gone.

As word of these pending cuts spread at local school sites, parents began talking to each other, and with teachers and administrators. Joan Goulding, who has two kids at Don Benito, a PUSD elementary school, has never lobbied state officials or been involved in any protests before, but last month she started working on a letter-writing and petition campaign to Schwarzenegger through her school's PTA. In the mornings, she's been collecting signatures on a petition from parents as they drop off their kids at school. But she wanted to do more and suggested that the PTA organize a demonstration to protest the budget cuts. Nora Schneir has a son in second grade at Longfellow School, where she's been a member of the School Site Council. After discussing the potential impact of the budget cuts at the Council meeting last month, Schneir -- who has participated in protests against the war in Iraq, immigrant rights and other issues, but never on school issues -- decided to help circulate petitions and organize a protest in front of the school this week.

Goulding and Schneir will be traveling to Sacramento on Monday to join other parents, teachers, and school board members from across the state at a rally at the State Capitol building. They were selected because their schools won a competition for collecting the most signatures on petitions protesting the budget cuts.

At the state level, the California Teachers Association, the California School Board Association, and the PTA are coordinating the lobbying efforts in Sacramento, although the local protests have resulted from indigenous activism. Although both the state Senate and Assembly have Democratic majorities, a two-thirds vote in both houses is needed to pass a budget. As a result, the school protesters need to identify two (out of 15) Republicans in the 40-member Senate and six (out of 32) Republicans in the 80-member Assembly who will go along with some combination of cuts and increased taxes -- a difficult goal given the hard-line conservativism of the state's GOP legislators. The CTA, CSBA and PTA strategists have yet to identify which Republicans they believe are most vulnerable to pressure and seek to mobilize parents, teachers, and other school employees in those districts.

In other words, a handful of right-wing GOP legislators, plus the Republican governor, are standing in the way of my kids' schools getting the funding they need.

Schwarzenegger wants to broker a deal but has been reluctant to propose any significant tax increases, despite a $15 billion deficit due to both a weaker-than-anticipated state economy (caused in large measure by the mortgage meltdown and declining housing prices) and the state's inefficient tax system. The core of Schwarzenegger's budget is a gimmick to ask voters for permission to borrow $15 billion from Wall Street against future earnings of the state lottery, but even that plan -- which simply postpones the budget crisis rather than solves it -- won't restore the funds being slashed for public schools, much less bring California even close to the national average in per-student spending.

Misguided state tax policies have exacerbated the state's current fiscal crisis. According to the California Budget Project (CBP), a nonprofit policy group, tax cuts enacted between 1993 and 2006 cost the state $12. billion this year. The largest reductions included the cut in the motor vehicle license fees (Schwarzenegger's ploy to get elected in 2003) and cuts in the corporate tax rate reduction. Corporate income taxes have declined as a share of the state's general fund revenues and as a share of corporate profits. If corporations had paid the same share of their profits in corporate taxes in 2005 as they did in 1981, corporate tax collections would be $7.3 billion higher, according to CBP calculations. As the state's economy has shifted from goods to services, the state's tax system hasn't adjusted - for example, the rise of the internet sales that escape taxation. If taxable purchases accounted for the same share of personal income this year as they did 40 years ago, the state would collect an additional $15.9 billion in sales tax revenues. In addition, the phase-out of the federal estate tax -- President Bush's give-away to the very rich -- will cost California over $1.1 billion this year.

Like many parents, I'm tired of going to silent auctions and bake sales at my kids' public schools to make sure there's enough money to keep the art teacher, purchase musical instruments and library books, and install computers in classrooms. But meanwhile, I'll be taking out the Magic Markers and helping my daughters design more protest posters, realizing that this isn't just about saving our schools, but teaching them a lesson about democracy.

Peter Dreier is professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

Comments

[ranchobob]

First we used bad debt as a vehicle for financial gain (getting out of trouble is also gain)
now we want to borrow against future gambling proceeds.
The lottery is really the voluntary despair tax.
If that's the best we can do, if that's the best the governor can do, then their is something terribly wrong in the Golden State - where I have lived all my life.
they should be forced to publish on the web where every single dollar has gone since he was elected.
but they won't because if people knew, they would all be out of a job. Democrats and Republicans.
whores all.

[JScott]

What those signs on the schools show say 'SEE TAXPAYERS THIS IS THE RESULT OF YOUR OBSESSION WITH PROPOSITION 13' and stress the links between what taxes are paid and what goverment services are received. Sadly most taxpayers/voters STILL DON'T GET THE CONNECTION!
You can bet some of those parents of students 'protesting' are the VERY SAME ONES who cheered when propostion 13 passed.


Ahh the result of unintended consequences.

[Rumplestiltskin]

Ahh the result of large bloated government bureaucracies..

[toomuchtolose]

You make it sound like a very easy choice, but it's not. The schools need money. In California they always need money. This is not something that has only happened in 2008. In California we have measures that go on the ballot (yearly in my area) asking for more money from the homeowners. When those measures are approved it's called a "parcel assessment," not "property taxes." So, you may think that property taxes don't go up because of Prop 13. However, parcel assessments are on a yearly basis, if the voters approve those measures. Renters get to vote for the property assessments, but only homeowners get billed.

The problem is that you have to choose whether the kids go without art and music classes and athletic programs and whether they have larger class sizes. Some schools may have to close and teachers get laid off. No one wants to see that happen.

On the other hand, there are people who have paid off their mortgages, but are on very limited incomes and really cannot take on these yearly parcel assessment increases. They can actually lose their homes, even though the homes are paid for, because they really cannot pay the parcel assessments. Prop 13 was created because people did lose their homes due to increased property taxes. You can change it to parcel assessment, but it's still a huge problem for people who are just barely making it.

Kids losing schools - families losing homes. What a choice!

[JudgeCrater]

"California ranks 46th in the nation in per-student spending, according to Education Week -- $7,081 compared with the national average of $8,973. It ranks 49th in the number of students per teacher, resulting in large average class sizes. It is at the very bottom in the ratio of counselors, librarians, and school nurses to students. It ranks 37th in school spending as a percentage of state taxable resources."

Their per-student spending is almost dead last in the US AND if you adjust for relatively higher costs of just about everything in CA it basically IS last. The logical end point of the endlessly selfish anti-tax movement: kiss your country's future goodbye. You'd think this would be an object lesson in the evils of being so selfish you can't be bothered to actually support America. Based on some of the comments on this page, however, you'd be wrong.

[darcy]

I sympathize with the writer, but throwing money at schools doesn't make them better. We should not expect the public schools to take on the job that parents are supposed to do, and we should not be educating the children of people who entered the country illegally.

Raising taxes isn't the answer. Property taxes before Proposition 13 were so high, they were forcing people out of their homes.

If it were up to me, I would send every child to school for half a day, so that there would be two shifts. That way, each teacher would teach twice the number of students without a larger class size. Every teacher knows that after the first three or four hours of the school day, learning is a done deal. Also, we should get rid of the hot food nonsense and serve every kid a sandwich and piece of fruit halfway through their four-hour school day. The food waste in schools is appalling.

[UnbiasView]

Guess what people of California . . . if you stop being huge liberals, creating all sorts of crazy global warming laws and supporting sanctuary cities you might not be in this problem.

[Overd0g]

It's hard to finance a state the size of California and the population of Northern Mexico on the backs of taxpayers.

[WorkingClass]

Who needs schools when you have the biggest prison system in the world. Go to your strength. Put the kids in jail.

[Lucas]

Decriminalize and tax pot. Release the mass amount of non violent, petty drug prisoners from the prisons.

Voila -- Kids have teachers again, and probably laptops for everyone too.

[Bladernr1001]

It is a question of priorities.

CA has a budget of $130 million. The revenue is $14-20 million short of that...apparently. That is an 11-15% shortfall. It is probably appropriate to remind everyone that this buget was $68 million just 10 years ago. In 10 years the budget has incresed 91%. That's 9% per year when the rate of inflation was was barley 3%.

What your vaunted pols keep doing is keep expanding the size and scope of government. Had they not been doing this we would not be having this conversation.

There is more than enough money for schools. What it comes down to is priorities. You can raise taxes all you want but it will not solve anything. CA is already one of the highest taxed states in the union. The last time we signiificantly raised taxes the revenue collected actually dropped......let me repeat that....REVENUE DROPPED. Taxes have a very damping effect on economic activity and so you must be careful about raising taxes too high.

You have probably heard it before...CA does not have a revenue problem...it has a spending problem. Revenue to the state of CA has also exceeded the rate of inflation for the last 10 years. But the CA legislature keeps on finding ways to outspend even the record revenues that they have received.

[NickHP]

Billion, not million.

As for the direction of tax (social dues) revenues from a taxation increase - cite some backing data. Your assertion just hangs in the air.

Remember that social services and infrastructure have to be paid for - social dues - not borrowed.

As a nonCalifornian I cannot tell you what to do, but consider trying to repeal Proposition 13, just because it would be better for your state.

[Bladernr1001]

In 1991 then republican goverernor Wilson sign into law one of the biggest tax increases the state ha ever seen. Revenue collected was about $1 billion less than the year before.

No, Nick....social services do not have to be paid for. Social services have turned many otherwise productive citizens into wards of the state. The welfare state has been a disaster from that point of view. CA welfare has also acted as magnet to draw all the poor from Mexico and other parts of the US. At some point you have to say: "enough is enough".

As for infrastructure, funds that were supposed to go for this for decades have been redirected (probably illegally) to the liberal's vaunted social engineering programs.

As for Prop 13, that has been the only saving grace for many folks to be able to stay in there own homes. The homes get reassessed when they are sold and the tax is allowed to increase at 2% per year. Property taxes have more than kept up with inflation. The propblem is as I stated before....it does not matter how much they collect, the pols will always spend more than t hey have.

[UnbiasView]

The biggest line item on almost every state budget is schools and yet increased funding rarely ends up in increased performance.

If you want to keep the school money then you need to cut out something like health care . . .

Cali you got yourself into this mess because you promote the entitlement theory with everyone and in the end it always bankrupts you. Washington should look at what Cali is doing to itself and stop the entitlement BS before it crushes the country too and not just a huge liberal state.

[Bladernr1001]

CA spending...con't

So back to priorites. If your priority is schools...then go ahead and fully fund the schools (whatever fully fund means). But you will have to cut somewhere else. What you should be fighting is the other special interests that are being as vocal as the school cut protestors are about various cuts. But raising taxes is not the answer.....the pols will always find a way to spend more than what they have. History backs this up

[NickHP]

What do you mean "raising taxes is not the answer....", of course it is the answer. It pays for your expenditures. But it shifts the economic stresses elsewhere in the system, and right now those people and corporations have a stronger lobby than the generic service using tax payers.

[Bladernr1001]

The liberal solution is never to look what the government is spending money on. You just blindly assume that everything government does is good and needed.

let me tell you Nick, there is no institution public or private that meets that goal. Businesses have to constantly evaluate what resources are being used for. Government is no different. When I see government do a real re-organization and still come up short then I might consider your position.

Most of those expeditures you talk about are just a way to redistribute wealth. In the end wealth redistristribution eventually kills the economy.

[laylahb]

I'll bet that nice tax break for purchasers of yachts and private jets will be in the budget again this year. The Repubs always manage to get that in . They hold the Dem majority hostage- a 2/3 majority is required to get the budget through in California. The yacht/jet break is a ruse to get the budget passed- by June-I mean July--sorry, August..

[CAPTAINSKIPPY]

Arnold, the other compassionate conservative. Wake up folks, this snake stole the governor's office with Rethug crooks and massive deception, and his best box office smile. The education cuts are designed to crush those "silly and unrealistic liberals" (our teachers) who care about children while he creates his version of a NCLB program that works about as well as gWb's does. Arnold is part of gWb's coverup, but now you can see what you are getting.

[Bladernr1001]

No.....the talk about cutting school budgets is about getting the voters to support a tax increase.

It's called the Washington Monument theory: When money is short pols threaten cuts to what they know are the highest priority programs. In CA that would be schools, police services and fire protection. They conveniently leave out the other less visible programs that voters do not really care about. Who would support a tax increase if the pols said that the back room accountants or the CA Association of Cities Commission was threatened with being cut?

Tha fact is there are 100's of commissions, programs and other government departments that the voters are not the least bit aware and could in most cases be wiped out with little impact to the operation of the state. But those little known programs represent a hold on power that pols do not want to give up so they and whatever small constituency that benefits from them fight like rabid alley cats to keep them in the budget.

Most businesses and families could easily absorb a 10-15% cut in income without impacting the most vital activities.....why can't our government do the same?

[gonavy]

OK. None of that made any sense. Do you even live in CA? Stole the governor's office? Is there some "master web site" you get your trumped up talking points from, because all this sounds too familiar.

[escapee]

I wonder how many of those angry teachers and parents (mentioned in this article) voted for that so-called governor? People, what the hell do you expect when you hand the state keys over to a Hollywood B-actor? People are so enchanted by the shiny objects our politicians dangle in front of them!

If anyone needs to be recalled it's Arnold!!

[UnbiasView]

Please explain to me what you think would be a good idea then?

California is $15 billion in the whole from 1 year . . . there need to be cuts everywhere. They never get to this point is they use their head before spending.

[RobertArend]

A family's home should not be a source of tax revenue.
It is like water and food: a necessity.
Tax our wages.
Tax our video games.
Tax all of our amusements,
But how cruel to hold our homes hostage
Else we not afford your ransom demands.

[NickHP]

Sorry, of course possessions are taxable. When the houses jump enormously in estimated value then the tax (social dues) revenues will follow. Otherwise restructure your taxes to bring in more revenue elsewhere. Taxation schemes are a way of setting government priorities. If you run a persistent deficit then you are repeatedly failing to set priorities.

[babylonandon]

The whole idea of raising property taxes on homes due to value increases is stupid.

The fact is, while your home value may go up hugely, your wages don't go up much (if any at all due to the increases in the costs of other things like food, fuel, energy) so such massive tax increases are a monumental wage cut potentially in some areas taxing folks who've had their homes for years out of their homes.

You want to deal with the value increases on homes how about massivley increasing the taxes on home sales or home improvements instead.

Better yet, stop providing all of those ridiculous benefits for illegal immigrants. That's what is killing your system.

Before anyone whines about "oh you don't even live in California", I live in Wisconsin and our comparative taxes (given the low property values, wages, and the incredible taxes) are even worse than yours and for the same reasons and we have a state government that thinks individual cities should have their own fish farms and that the state should give tuition benefits and zero-money down, FHA loans to illegal immigrants.

[Overd0g]

I don't know about you, by my income is a necessity.

[LouisPWu]

It's a Republican thing. An ignorant populace is easiest to control.

[NickHP]

Touche

[toomuchtolose]

Why can't we bring back the tax on take-out treats that we had in California about 20 years ago. The state made billions on that. At first the stores complained that it would be too complicated, but that worked out in a short period of time. If you went grocery shopping and bought packages of cupcakes, for example, there was no tax. Same for cookies, chips, twinkies, soft drinks, etc. The only time the tax (surcharge?) kicked in was when you bought that type of item as a take-out. It was set up to run for a year or two and then stop. And that's what happened. Overnight, the state lost all of that revenue. We should bring it back. It could be promoted as a fight against obesity. For people who are addicted to candy, sodas, cupcakes, chips, etc., it really won't be that bad. I think it was a penny on each item. What's a penny? It would be a very simple, affordable tax. And the state really did make a lot of money when it was in effect. Of course, the snack food manufacturers moaned and groaned about it. But I doubt anyone gave up snacks because they cost a penny more.