Star, even though I am done with school issues, parents here are up in arms - there is talk of ending the school year a week early to save some money, and 2,000 teachers probably are going to be laid off for the next school year. Last night the gov's newest idea to raise money was to levy a 10% golf tax.
. Where is my property taxes and lottery money going to - I could have sworn they were meant for the schools.
There should be a section in the DSM exclusively for Faulty Reasoning in adult government officials.
I work for a school district and luckily they have some reserves. Most of SD in california don't. Still, I may be getting an IOU for my paycheck next month. I know that most Calif SD's have frozen new hires and mine has frozen ALL non-essential spending. It's been really tough.
Education is 40 percent of California's state budget and district admistrators and EVERYONE ELSE THAT WORKS FOR A SCHOOL DISTRICT is biting their nails to the quik waiting.
Dems and Reps just can't seem to hammer out a budget and everyone is left hanging. We're told the cuts are going to be HUGE, but no one knows how huge. It is the responsibility of voters to let their represenatives know they are disgusted and to get a budget passed. Everyone is going to lose something.
Lottery money is only a small fraction of a SD's budget. The district I work for gets 3 million a year in lottery funds. Sounds good. Then, when one considers that the district' entire budget is 300 million. Lottery is only one percent of their budget and we're being told is expect 25 to 35 million in cuts
at least. Even lottery funds are expected to decrease.
There's been talk of layoffs and notices must go out by March to teachers. Furloughs have been mentioned, but the law says there MUST be 180 days of instruction. So, special legislation must be passed to end the school year earlier.
Property taxes? Please. Prop. 13 insures that property taxes will never be enough to cover required services. Property taxes are suppose to fund police and fire protection also. The people passed that one decades ago and the chickens have come home to roost.
Things are very difficult pretty much everywhere. I invested about 150,000 dollars improving my home the past few years. Guess what? It's barely worth what I invested. My little town has been really hit hard and is struggling and the butt of a lot of jokes right now.
All of this goes way back before The Governator. As much as I would like to lay all the blame at his feet, it's the state legislature's responsibility to make and pass a budget.
I know that a teacher made a snide comment because my district is building new schools due overcrowding. If are they going to lay off people why are they building new schools?? That is because schools are built with BOND money and when the voters passed the bond they voted that the money will ONLY go for building new schools and facilities. Can't use it for salaries. California schools have a lot of catagorical funding and those funds can only be used for what the fund is earmarked.
I heard about that golf tax. I live in a golf mecca and are people ever up in arms about that one!
Things are very difficult pretty much everywhere.
