In 2009, 16,000 teachers and other public school employees lost their jobs. The devastating effect on the quality of education in this state is just beginning to be felt. Now we learn that insane policy of mass firings of teachers and school employees is going to be renewed, as 23,000 more have received pink slips this month:

Faced with another year of potentially deep budget cuts, California's public schools have sent out 22,000 pink slips to teachers and school employees, according to the state's superintendent.

"Our state budget crisis has forced districts to lay off thousands of teachers over the past few years," said Jack O'Connell, the state superintendent of public instruction. "The governor has proposed cutting another $2.4 billion from public education. While the education community opposes these cuts, our schools are forced to prepare for this potential outcome by issuing a massive wave of potential layoff notices."

(Note: CTA reports today that the number of layoffs is now 23,225)

Arnold Schwarzenegger's office tried to spin this as not their fault, and even claimed the governor wasn't making further cuts to K-12 budgets:

Still, a spokesman for Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Aaron McLear, took umbrage with O'Connell's characterization of the governor's January budget proposal, noting that Schwarzenegger has proposed allocating the same amount of money for K-12 and community colleges as he did last year.

What McLear didn't say is that because of the (senseless) expiration of federal stimulus funds, keeping K-12 budgets the same in 2010-11 as in 2009-10 is a /de facto/ budget cut. Last March over 30,000 pink slips were issued, and it appears stimulus funds helped about half of those employees to get rehired for this current school year, most of whom were on 1-year temporary contracts. Without stimulus funds, and with a freeze in education spending, those teachers will get laid off for good this summer.

So far none of the gubernatorial candidates have addressed the destruction of our schools. Sure, Meg Whitman pledges to "fix education" but also pledges to blow an enormous hole in the state budget deficit with her tax cuts for the rich. How will she do both?

As Joe Garofoli points out, it might have something to do with her attack on public employee unions. Apparently she thinks teachers and other public workers, who make a middle-class living and retire with a decent though by no means generous pension, make too much money and should learn to do with less.

That's not going to solve the problems of our schools. If teacher pay decreases, it will become even more difficult to keep qualified teachers in the classroom to provide the education students deserve.

But that seems to be Whitman's approach, since she is on record as opposing new taxes. As California's schools suffer, Meg Whitman is showing no sign of wanting to help reverse the trend.

The AP has gotten a hold of the governor's May Revise speech and therefore the major budget proposals that are to be unveiled later today. The key elements are described below and over the flip I provide some analysis of each proposal.

• Arnold will float bonds using the state lottery as security. $15 billion over 3 years will be raised but $10 billion goes into "rainy day fund"



• If that fails, 1% sales tax hike to last no more than 3 years



• Prop 98 suspension abandoned; instead COLA will not be paid



• State parks closures abandoned; instead fees to rise $1 to $2



• $6 billion still left to cut or balance out somehow."

Overall thoughts: Here we go again. Arnold Schwarzenegger came to office in the recall of Gray Davis in 2003 promising to solve our state's budget problems once and for all. Instead he immediately blew a $6 billion hole in the budget with the Vehicle License Fee cut and then borrowed to close the rest of the gap - costing the state around $3 billion in annual debt service.

Now that Arnold's solution has predictably failed, he is predictably offering more of the same. Borrowing against the lottery is a problematic concept for many reasons, the main one being it avoids the core issues of our budget. It's yet another one-time fix that does nothing to solve the structural revenue shortfall that has plagued our state for 30 years.

It is significant that Arnold seems to be backing away from his most significant cuts - especially the K-12 cuts. Obviously the details released tomorrow will be key, and we should fully expect higher ed to take another crippling blow. But this does indicate that the activism many of us have launched against the primary schools cuts has had an impact.

And of course, there's still $6 billion left over - $6 billion that the Yacht Party will insist come in the form of destructive cuts that damage the economy, $6 billion that Democrats will - we hope - insist come in the form of wise, long-term revenue solutions.

Finally, Arnold seems to be gambling that the economy will make a quick recovery and that the current woes are just a dip and not the opening stages of a deeper recession. That, I think, is a major and probably reckless gamble to make.   Read More »

When Arnold took office in late 2003 he argued that one of the state's highest priorities was to "reform" a workers' compensation system that was supposedly driving businesses, and therefore jobs, out of the state. And the Legislature did so, cutting benefits to injured workers in order to try and keep business and the Chamber of Commerce happy.

Five years later California faces a similar crisis, as skilled workers flee the state in droves, taking their salaries and therefore their positive economic impact with them. But this time, Arnold seems happy to see their backs, because it's teachers and not well-connected corporations that are fleeing a state thanks to poor budget priorities:   Read More »