I'm absolutely revolted by what's happening in California, and I know I'm not the only one. Before these massive budget cuts, California was already one of worst states in the country for funding education. Now, we're on our second round of severe budget cuts, which will probably put us at #50 for per student funding. How do they expect our students to get educated? How are teachers supposed to do their jobs with the increased class size and little to no support?
What's going to happen in 10 years when our seasoned teachers retire? Who's going to fill their shoes? The newer teachers have all been laid off. I'm sure college students are not planning to go into education right now because of the lack of jobs. Will California have to hire people on emergency credentials as they had to in the 1990s? Who will be left to mentor them?
Why are California schools so poorly funded to begin with when California has to be one of the wealthier states in the country? This makes absolutely no sense to me.
Until the state recognizes the importance of education and makes funding it a priority, they're going to have a generation of poorly educated people who will probably not have much to contribute in terms of a tax base. Cutting education is a poor choice because it means they're not investing in our future.
As a parent of a child who will probably be considered twice exceptional (special needs and gifted), I really worry where she'll end up with the lack of proper funding and support. Don't get me wrong, I'm worried about all the kids, but kids with special needs have so much at stake.
I look at her current school and see all the hard-working teachers doing their best with what little they have. They deserve to be treated better too!
This whole situation sickens me.
That is such horrible news! I hope the state somehow secures the money to keep most of the teachers. I also question why education isn't a priority in California. Even when we were children, few bonds passed. Most people with grown children or no children refuse to vote "yes" to bond issues even when we were school children. Jim and I saw that although West Torrance High received so many awards and accolades, very few students went to four year colleges. Most of the parents were engineers with advanced degrees. One of the reasons stated that the parents didn't want to help pay for college. I'm not sure that this was the whole reason. We just thought this was a very troubling statistic and was one of the reasons why we moved across the country.
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