This story was reported for the San Diego News Network on April 29, 2010.
Worried Californians, a promise from our very own governor and a look at “wasteful” spending in California make up this edition of California Budget Crisis Diaries.
Here’s your dose of CBCD to fulfill your healthy addiction.
School funding: A new poll shows Californians believe they aren’t receiving the quality education they deserve.
Reported by The Orange County Register, the poll is conducted by Public Policy Institute of California and surveys 2,500 Golden State residents.
“According to the survey, 62 percent of Californians believe there is not enough state funding going to their public schools, while 26 percent believe there is just enough, and 6 percent believe schools have more than enough.
When asked how they feel about some potential ways schools may deal with decreased funding, 73 percent of Californians said they are very concerned about teacher layoffs. Fifty-nine percent are very concerned about class sizes getting bigger. Fifty-six percent are very concerned about having fewer days of school instruction. And 49 percent are very concerned about elimination of after-school and summer programs.”
Additionally, the poll “concluded that residents are more worried about education funding than at this point last year.”
On a somewhat related note, another poll shows California public schools lack proper sex education courses. Check out that story here.
A promise: The Californians polled can breathe a sigh of relief over education cuts.
Schwarzenegger is promising California’s cash-strapped colleges and universities that he will veto any budget that does not include additional funding for higher education.
The Republican governor met Tuesday with the top administrators from the University of California, California State University and the community college systems.
The gathering marked the 50th anniversary of the state’s college master plan, which greatly expanded access and helped make the state’s system a model for the nation.
Schwarzenegger says the budget for the fiscal year that starts in July must include more money for both higher education and the financial aid awards known as Cal Grants.
California waste: How wasteful is California when it comes to spending? The Economist took a stab at the numbers and compared it with other states, showing California lawmakers are actually quite frugal in their spending habits.
“…there seems to be much less of this waste than the politicians like to claim, at least as far as head counts are concerned. As of 2008, the last year for which comparisons are available, California had 108 state employees for every 10,000 state residents (see chart). That has hardly changed in a decade and is far leaner than the average (149 state workers per 10,000 residents) of America’s other states. Only Florida and Illinois have fewer state workers relative to population. Even if employees in local government, such as teachers, are added, California’s public workforce is still among the nine leanest.”
The Economist also digs deeper into the always-controversial prison system.
“So the surprise is the state’s prison system, which has more than doubled its personnel over the past two decades, growing four times faster than the rest of state government to become its second-largest employer, with 17 percent of the total workforce. Without this increase in the prison-industrial complex, state employment would actually have lagged population growth. And yet Ms. Whitman, who has been endorsed by the police union, has promised to support all the ‘tough on crime’ policies that have caused the booms in incarceration and prison-hiring.”
Associated Press contributed to this report. Hoa Quach is the political editor for the San Diego News Network.