No doubt California's dysfunctional budget process is wrecking many lives here in California. I was just reminded of it reading this New York Times opinion column about nearby UC-Berkeley :

Now there are ominous cracks appearing in that cornerstone of American civilization. Exhibit A is the University of California, Berkeley, the finest public university in the world and undoubtedly one of the two or three best universities in the United States, public or private.

More of Berkeley’s undergraduates go on to get Ph.D.’s than those at any other university in the country. The school is among the nation’s leaders in producing winners of the Nobel Prize. An extraordinary amount of cutting-edge research in a wide variety of critically important fields, including energy and the biological sciences, is taking place here....

So it’s dismaying to realize that the grandeur of Berkeley (and the remarkable success of the University of California system, of which Berkeley is the flagship) is being jeopardized by shortsighted politicians and California’s colossally dysfunctional budget processes.

Berkeley is caught in a full-blown budget crisis with nothing much in the way of upside in sight. The school is trying to cope with what the chancellor, Robert Birgeneau, described as a “severe and rapid loss in funding” from the state, which has shortchanged Berkeley’s budget nearly $150 million this year, and cut more than $800 million from the higher education system as a whole.

....Berkeley is laying off staffers, reducing faculty through attrition and cutting pay. Student fees will no doubt have to be raised, and the fear is that if the financial crisis continues unabated it will be difficult to retain and recruit the world-class scholars who do so much to make the school so special.

Even though it is a public university, the more it depends on private funding the likelier it is to become inaccessible to middle class families, said columnist Bob Herbert.

Because we have a dysfunctional state legislature and warped attitude towards taxes, California continues to face some scary budget cuts in healthcare and education.

Most recently, a concerned dad and basketball coach wrote a diary in Open Salon proposing the state cut athletics before academic programs in public schools. It is sad we even have to have this conversation. As the writer noted, this feels like the show Survivor and we are all its participants.

As the state’s economic crisis has developed, thanks in large part to our legislators and governor, school districts have undertaken a process of belt-tightening that is matched only by the gradual emaciation of the participants on CBS’s Survivor.  

The Mt. Diablo Unified School District, where I coach, and where I once attended middle and high school, announced that it must cut $28 million from its upcoming three-year budget.  This action will need to be taken on the heels of the defeat of local Measure D, which sought to increase property taxes by $99 per year to raise $7 million of funding for five years, and which would have replaced funds the school board was forced to cut earlier this year.  All the while, state funding for the district has been reduced.

Four hundred teachers have already received pink slips, and school board members have projected the loss of reduced class sizes, elimination of programs for fifth grade music and science and art programs, not to mention the postponement of maintenance projects that have already been deferred.  The return to larger class sizes is, indeed, a sad thing.  Forty percent of the district’s students are English language learners, who won’t be able to receive the support and attention they need in larger classes and from over-burdened teachers.  

The status of high school athletics is uncertain for the beleaguered district, but the school board plans to consider funding after-school athletics through private donations.

My question is rather than cut sports, including presumably the almost non-existent phys ed, why can't the district raise private funds for academics, too? Also, I was peeved that folks in the district didn't think their schools were worth an additional $99 in property taxes. What is that -- 30 cents a day? Our priorities are pretty warped.

How are your school districts dealing with these devastating cuts?

Public education, which is a free service guaranteed by the California Constitution, is no longer free. According to the Los Angeles Times, various school districts are asking parents to fork over cash in an effort to hold onto teachers after proposed budget cuts by our Governator.

South Orange County families are being urged to donate $400 per student to save the jobs of 266 teachers in the Capistrano Unified School District.

Parents at Long Beach's Longfellow Elementary are among countless statewide who are launching fundraising foundations.

Bay Area parents launched a campaign featuring children standing in trash cans; the theme is "Public Education Is Too Valuable to Waste..."

"Public education is free, but an excellent public education is not free at this point," said Janet Berry, president of the Davis Schools Foundation, which recently launched the Dollar-a-Day campaign, urging citizens of the city near Sacramento to donate $365 per child, grandchild or student acquaintance.

Gov. Ahnold Schwarzenegger has proposed cutting about $4.8 billion in education this year and next. In the meantime, about 20,000 teachers, librarians, nurses and other school positions have been alerted that they will be fired.

In an effort to save money, school districts are looking at increasing class sizes, closing down some schools and eliminating programs such as International Baccalaureate and Advanced Placement. Don't worry, sports will also be eliminated so this budget crisis affects everyone. Everyone except those who live in wealthy school districts and can raise the funds to keep their programs.

Maryland is considering upping the age in which students can drop out of high school from 16 to 17, according to a story in the Washington Post.

My initial reaction was why is this even a consideration? Of course, we should insist that students stay in school! But apparently some legislators oppose it because there is a budget crisis and they don’t want to keep supporting kids who no longer want to attend class.

Senators debated whether keeping teenagers in school longer should be a priority in a year when the state's economy is slowing and its budget is being cut. Some suggested that the state would be more effective at stimulating a student's interest in learning by intervening with more resources at a much younger age.

Sen. Ulysses Currie (D-Prince George's) called the decision on whether to raise the mandatory attendance age a "tough issue," given the high dropout rate. But he said teenagers are "getting smarter today than they were" and may have "maxed out with what is taught in school" by the time they are 16.

Sen. Thomas M. Middleton (D-Charles) said the legislature should devote more resources to general equivalency diploma programs for students who quit school but take classes toward a high school diploma.
"I have concern we're spending money on kids that want to get out of school," said Sen. J. Lowell Stoltzfus (R-Somerset).

Almost 10,300 Maryland students dropped out of public schools last year, with Baltimore in the lead, according to a legislative analysis. Prince George's followed, losing 1,838 students, or 6.2 percent of the total, and Montgomery was next, with 1,342 dropouts or 5.2 percent of its student body.