Poway Unified Educational Advocates

2005 Budget Crisis General Information Summary

The Legislature has reconvened and Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed his 2005-06 budget. The last four budgets have cut billions from education programs and the corresponding local cuts are devastating.

While we recognize that the state's budget deficit presents the Governor and Legislature with very difficult fiscal decisions, our children's education and their future should not be penalized.

Please complete the form below to tell your legislators that education is your top priority and urge them to fund it as such. Feel free to make your own edits and personalize the letter. A couple of clicks and your voice will be heard!

Sample Letter for Campaign

Subject: Support Public Education - Oppose Education Cuts

Dear [ Decision Maker ] ,

As the debate continues over the proposed 2005-06 budget, I urge you to oppose cuts to education, keep faith with the voter-enacted Proposition 98 minimum guarantee for education, and keep the promise made last year to protect school funding.

Last year's budget agreement underfunded the Proposition 98 guarantee for schools by $2 billion, with the promise that no more cuts would be made next year and that, when the state's fiscal condition gets better, the $2 billion would eventually be repaid.

Instead, you are now being asked to make even deeper cuts to education and permanently erase additional billions in state debt owed to schools. That will mean laying off teachers, cutting essential science, arts, and physical education classes, crowding more kids into classrooms, and closing the doors of many schools.

In short, it would cement our fate as one of the most underfunded school systems in the nation.

Please keep the promise to our children. Our schools are already starved, yet adequate resources are needed to attain the high educational standards that our children deserve.

Sincerely,

Campaign Launched:
June 02, 2005

Background Information

Budget Crisis
Background Information

In order to help resolve the budget crisis, last Spring the education community agreed to reduce Proposition 98 expenditures by $2 billion. State revenues are now higher than projected due to the rebounding economy, yet the current proposed budget would not provide the refund to education - in fact, the budget proposes further cuts.

If these cuts are implemented, they would eliminate another $2 billion in education spending, and not just for this year, but each year thereafter and into the foreseeable future.

How does this cut create a permanent hole when voters passed Proposition 98 to ensure that schools cannot get shortchanged? The budget proposes changes to Proposition 98 that would eliminate the requirement that education funding be fully restored when the economy and revenues improve!

In addition, the Governors proposal would also eliminate $469 million for payments to the State Teacher's Retirement Fund, leaving districts (or the teachers themselves) to make up the difference.