honey & ollie

Looks like the school district that services Casa Fabulous will be losing just about 2 million dollars in January as a result of the CA budget shortfall and the whole Wall St. fiasco. This is a mid-year budget cut, so a lot of money they’d allocated to programs already going on this year will be cut. In January, those programs will either go away or get trimmed beyond all recognition. Teachers will have to spend more out of pocket to get necessities for their classrooms, if they even keep their jobs. Grants are going to go bye bye. It’s really gonna suck. I’m not sure how it will affect #2 Daughter’s school specifically but it does not bode well for any district school I am sure.

I am particularly worried about Special Ed services of course, because we utilize them, but I am also worried about the ramifications for the kids who are in mainstream classes. At least kids with an IEP like #2 Daughter are guaranteed their services by federal law. The district can not cut aides or special classes, but they can combine them, they can make changes and a lot of potentially disruptive things can happen under the Special Ed umbrella. Unfortunatley, mainstream kids are going to take it in the pants. Teachers will be fired, classes will be combined, schools may close, test scores will go down district-wide and that will lose the district even more money come next year…

No Child Left Behind, folks. But we are. We are leaving the kids behind.

This is state wide, not just my district. Every school district in CA will be facing cuts, as the total number that Das Governator is talking about cutting from education is around 4 billion. People are not going to be able to keep the damn doors open, in some cases. This is not related to any bond measures that voters may have passed, btw. That money is earmarked for other things, notably infrastructure, and can NOT be used to pay teachers, buy books or fund already underfunded special ed programs.

After attending a meeting for parents and educators tonight that touched on this issue, I’m stressed out and upset. On one hand very much concerned about the ramifications for our family directly, but on a larger scale, I’m really worried about education in California overall. Every public school child in this state is going to be adversely affected by these cuts to the budget. If you have a child in public school in the State of California, you need to be talking to your school administrators about what is going to happen. Get involved now, go to meetings, stay on top of it. And when you find out, then please bitch and moan and write letters to every elected official you can think of. Please ask them to put money BACK into education where it belongs.