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The sun has once again set on California's boom times and the state is now dealing with the darkness of a budget crisis. Perhaps some of the deepest shadows have fallen on California's K-12 campuses. The state's schools started feeling the squeeze of increasing costs and static revenues two years ago. Many rolled back smaller class sizes in third grade, others cut teaching positions, librarians and the music and art programs that had been built up as California's economy prospered. Now the squeeze has turned into a choke, and school districts are running out of palatable options to conserve dollars. "Every district has pretty much already cut anything that is non-essential," says Jeannine Martineau, president of the California School Boards Association, who spent the summer lobbying to keep last-minute budget negotiations from eliminating more education funding. "They're down to the bare bone. So the cuts that are being made right now cut to the quick. We're now in a position where we're going to impact the classroom and student learning." How much more can the system take before students suffer? Some feel most schools can weather this storm and, while cuts are unpleasant, California's youth can still get a quality education. But others believe the short-change is underway and that programs essential to a well-rounded education have found the dump heap. Take, for instance, Capistrano Unified School District's $22 million shortfall for the 2003-04 school year. That's 8 percent of its annual budget. Since March, the district has been choosing which programs and positions stay, and which must go. District administration is being cut back, elementary school assistant principal positions have been eliminated, library technician and high school secretarial jobs have been slashed, and the list goes on, in all around 70 categories of cuts and reductions. The crisis also had a very real impact on third-grade classrooms. The $1 million that was used to keep class sizes at 20 students or less is gone. Parents around the district rallied throughout June to generate the necessary $40,000 per campus to retain smaller class sizes at the third-grade level. Most were successful, but some were not. "It's just devastating our school district," says James A. Fleming, Capistrano superintendent. "It's a huge cut. We are laying off dozens of people and it's affecting everything from the classroom to the custodial ranks." It's also affecting the focus on student education. Aging library books Richard Moore, librarian for the Orange County Department of Education, attests to the real impact the additional funds had on schools' reading and research centers. Moore says California set aside $28 per student for library resources the past four years to help rebuild schools' collections. In 1998, the average copyright of a school library book was 1970. After four years of increased funding, that average had jumped to 1987. Computer catalogues were created, databases set up and magazine subscriptions purchased. "When the money started coming in, we were able to weed through the collections," he says. "I threw away nearly half of the books on the shelf at Bolsa High. There was a book on the Congo, which had become something else and then became the Congo again. It had been so long that the country had gone through two name changes. Another book on owls said, `You can find owls in all of the 48 states.'" But the momentum is now gone. This year, school libraries will be lucky to get $3.45 per student. That drop in money will leave renewal subscriptions unpaid and few new books coming into libraries. While the extra funds helped immensely, the average copyright is still more than 15 years old. Moore says that not only hurts pupils working on research projects - it hurts all students in a key subject that is essential for their continued success in life. "It doesn't matter what method you use to teach a child to read, once he knows how to read, if you don't have the books for him to practice with, he'll lose it," he says. "It's like teaching someone to play baseball from a book. If you don't have some bats and balls and get them out there on the field for practice, the kids aren't going to learn how to play. If you don't fill a library with books for kids to read, they're not going to get excited about it." Leaving children behind Libraries have been only one area in which California has focused its reform efforts in recent years. New standards, new statewide tests and high-stakes accountability measures all are designed to improve student achievement in every state school. Most recently, the federal government raised the bar by passing No Child Left Behind, requiring that schools pay for additional support for students not making adequate yearly progress. Yet, as California slips into budget troubles, there is much fear about what that means for education reforms. "I think there are big challenges and people are hoping schools can stay focused on these expectations and try to keep the priorities around student achievement in the midst of having to make cuts," says Mary Perry, deputy director of EdSource, a nonprofit that studies California public education. "If we're trying to improve our expectations and performance of all kids and address the gap in achievement, then that means you need to invest more in the education of kids who come to school with less of the basic knowledge and skills they need to be successful. You have to decide what supplemental instruction you need to invest in to help them catch up. And additional instruction equals more people and that equals money." EdSource has developed a video that explores California's move to standards-based reforms, and also the challenges districts face in maintaining the focus on that in the midst of this budget crisis. But how deep the impact will be largely depends on the district, and varies greatly among districts, she says. Variables abound and can include how conservative a district's administrators were when they projected state funds, how senior their teaching staff is or how aggressive their unions are negotiating pay increases. "I believe there are some districts that are basically going to be able to maintain their programs and ride this one out," she says. "That doesn't mean they aren't cutting things they didn't wish they had to. But some are certainly in better position than others. There are so many variables, but I think it's fair to say there is no district in state that isn't feeling squeezed, that isn't having to look at cuts somewhere." Those cuts, no matter how incremental they may seem, will at some point ripple through society over time, Martineau adds. "Kids walk into our classrooms in kindergarten and we have them until the day high school ends," she says. "What we have done in the classroom with those kids will impact their life forever. If we don't have the tools or resources to do it right, we can't recall these kids. We can't send out a notice and say, 'We didn't teach you this right so you have to come back' and teach them again. They keep going through the system." Jennifer Leuer of Yorba Linda is an education reporter. To reach her: leuer.ramus@sbcglobal.net. Books of reference In the interest of helping your child find sources for schoolwork, create a library of books that will help in many ways. • Two can't-miss references for any child's bookcase are a dictionary and a thesaurus. • McGraw-Hill has published two excellent books for children from elementary through high school: "Children's Dictionary" and "Children's Thesaurus." • The dictionary, in particular, uses artwork intelligently to help guide the young user. Dinosaurs, for example, get two pages of illustrations along with some explanation of what they were and when they roamed the earth. When your child looks up the meaning of the word, he also will get a fine history lesson. • A thesaurus is a powerful tool for writing skills, word comprehension, and English usage. As the publisher notes, "People look up a word in the dictionary to find information about a word...people look up a word in a thesaurus in order to find other words that mean the same, or almost the same, thing." Grammar, examples and synonyms, together in an easy-to-use format, make this book a winner as well. • "Children's Dictionary ($24.95) and "Children's Thesaurus" ($19.95), both by McGraw-Hills Children's Publishing. Information: www.mhkids.com. Can you spare a textbook? “It's a huge distraction and it's also demoralizing," Fleming says. "One of the things we're having to tell people now is that we don't know if we are going to be able to purchase new textbooks, so you may just have to do the best you can with what you have. Ditto (with) paper handouts, stuff like that. Even with best teachers, they just can't do the job as well without all the materials." While Capistrano makes the cuts in preparation for the coming school year, other districts struggled to make ends meet this year. The twice-yearly financial statements that districts file with county offices of education provide a sobering view. During the first part of the 2002-03 school year, 43 of California's 986 districts received a negative or qualified certification, meaning they were either not able to pay their bills or were in danger of being in that position shortly, according to EdSource. That number jumped to 63 districts in the second part of the year. Adding to the heartbreak of district cuts is their arrival at a time when California had finally started to move up the national rankings in per-student spending. The past five years saw major increases in the state's investment in schools. During the 2000-01 school year, the state move closer to the national average in spending per student, ranking 33rd in the nation compared with its 1997-98 ranking of 40th, according to EdSource. The state also ranked third for its average teacher salary that year. |
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