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Letters to the Editor

Apr 16, 2008
- La Jolla Light

Budget cut impacts on LJHS
The following is an open letter from staff members at La Jolla High School.

In January, Governor Schwarzenegger proposed to address an estimated $14 billion budget deficit by making the largest reduction to education funding in California history.

The governor has asked the state legislature to suspend Proposition 98, the minimum funding guarantee for public schools, and cut $4.4 billion from the education budget for 2008-2009 in addition to $400 million in reductions for the current 2007-2008 budget year.

The combined reductions equate to $800 per student when spread across the six million students enrolled in California's public schools. This meets the governor's proposed "10 percent, across the board" benchmark for budget reductions. California already spends almost $2,000 less per student than the national average, and our teacher-to-student ratio is one of the highest in the nation. Our state has the eighth largest economy in the world, yet we rank 46th nationally for education funding. We must do better.

The impact on La Jolla High School is already being felt on our campus. Many of our staff members have received pink slips and several face reassignments for next year: two counselors, five teachers, our librarian, two locker room attendants and an office position. These are hard-working, responsible people who are dedicated to working with children.

The loss of these teachers will increase class size by as much as 30 percent, affecting our entire academic program; the loss of our support personnel will adversely affect the health and safety of our students with limited services and reduced supervision available. Other impacts upon our school community include but are not limited to:

Math and English classes with more than 40 students per class. More time will be spent on classroom management and discipline issues. Work loads will have to be adjusted. We are losing our journalism teacher and one other English teacher.
The social science department is losing one full-time teacher and likely two elective offerings in sociology and psychology.
The world languages department reports that increased class size will make it increasingly difficult to evaluate and help students develop the oral skills necessary for the acquisition of a foreign language. One teacher has been pink-slipped and another teacher will not be replaced.
Without a librarian, our LMC will become little more than a textbook repository and a place for adult meetings and student testing. Textbook distribution next year will be chaotic and haphazard. Student accountability will decrease driving up textbook costs. The library is the information center and intellectual heart of any high school. Once we lose this resource, it will be difficult, if not impossible, to get it back.
Fewer opportunities will be available in science classes for hands-on activities due to safety restrictions and facility limitations.
Our counseling department is losing two valuable staff members. If they are not reinstated, the "student to counselor" ratio will approach 600 to one, a 20 percent increase in caseload.
The elimination of AVID, a program that offers promising, under-represented students assistance and guidance making college a reality for many, puts our WASC accreditation at risk. This is a program that has a proven track record and changes lives.
The reassignment of our locker room attendants has several immediate, negative effects upon our students. There will be less supervision and increased security concerns. Locker room attendants help maintain locker rooms, clean restroom facilities, provide first-aid for minor injuries and counsel many students informally. They are positive role models for our students.
The elimination of one classified office position, after losing a person during the last round of cuts, will increase the workload of the remaining staff. This will decrease the response time for inquiries and timely clerical services that the La Jolla school community has come to expect.

La Jolla High School has been working with a skeleton crew for many years now due to previous budget cuts of 2.5 percent and 7 percent. Despite increased and under-funded accountability demands from state and federal mandates, we have continued to do more with less. With the latest rounds of budget cuts, we are being pushed beyond our critical mass.

Governor Schwarzenegger submits his budget to legislators in May with public hearings in June and July. The action we, the staff of LJHS, are requesting is for the La Jolla community to make its voice heard at the state level during the month of April. Your letters and e-mails will do more than merely save jobs; they will help protect programs and ensure the high level of quality instruction for which La Jolla High School is nationally known; and they will help to maintain adequate health and safety measures vital for our students' physical, emotional, and intellectual well-being.

It is important that the legislature and the governor reconsider these devastating budget cuts and pursue some other remedy to a problem the educational community and the six million public school children and their families did not create. We ask that you contact your state legislators: Senator Susan Davis, District 53; Senator Christine Kehoe, District 39; Assembly Member George Plescia, District 75; and Governor Schwarzenegger. Log on to one of the following Web sites for more information about contacting your legislators and adding your voice to maintain Proposition 98 and protect public education funding for California. Thank you.