January 26, 2008
WHEREAS, the state budget proposed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is a giant step backward for our students that would create chaos in our public schools at every level – preschool through higher education – with cuts of historic proportion that would derail the progress and threaten the education of millions of California students; and
WHEREAS, against great odds, California’s educators have witnessed how our students and schools, despite being constantly asked to do more with less, have been making progress, with overall reading scores up 25 percent and math scores increasing 17 percent in the last four years; and
WHEREAS, Education Week now ranks California 46th in the nation in per-pupil spending, at nearly $1,900 below the national per-student average, while the state also has some of the largest class sizes in the country and ranks dead last in the number of counselors, school nurses and librarians per student; and
WHEREAS, California’s teachers are outraged that in this proclaimed “year of education” the governor’s proposed budget would slash $4.8 billion from our public schools and community colleges over the next 18 months – including devastating midyear cuts of $400 million – and would decimate the state’s minimum school funding law, Proposition 98, which voters approved in 1988 and reaffirmed their support for in 2005; and
WHEREAS, slashing the monumental sum of $4.8 billion from our schools is the equivalent of laying off more than 107,000 teachers or 137,000 education support professionals; or gutting per-student funding by more than $800; or cutting more than $24,000 per classroom statewide; or increasing class sizes statewide by as much as 35 percent; and
WHEREAS, the magnitude of the budget cuts to higher education will be devastating, with community colleges losing more than $500 million and cuts of more than $300 million proposed for CSU and $109 million for our UC systems. In addition, community college part-time faculty and CSU lecturers will suffer layoffs, students will face up to 10 percent fee hikes—their sixth in the last seven years—course offerings will be reduced, class sizes increased, and graduation times lengthened; and
WHEREAS, our students didn’t create this budget crisis and their education shouldn’t be ransomed to solve it with proposals that don’t just mortgage their academic futures, but amount to a foreclosure of hope for generations of families; and
WHEREAS, we stand together today as the nearly 800 democratically elected delegates who comprise the California Teachers Association State Council of Education entrusted with protecting the education welfare of our 6.3 million students and all 340,000 members of CTA;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the CTA State Council of Education unanimously condemns the state budget proposals by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as unworkable and disastrous for our public schools, higher education, students and their futures;
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that CTA calls on the governor and the Legislature to put our students first, reject across-the-board cuts that would damage our public schools, protect the voter-approved, minimum school funding law, Proposition 98, and show true leadership by setting realistic state budget priorities and a balanced approach of spending cuts and revenue increases to close the $14.5 billion budget hole;
AND BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the 340,000 members of CTA will fight these catastrophic budget cut proposals, which have already prompted some school districts to lay off teachers and cut local student programs; will fight to protect the integrity of Proposition 98; and will continue to stand up and speak out for California students and public schools.