California is amid one of the worst budget deficits that the state has ever seen. For years the public education system has been taking large budget cuts in order to keep the state afloat. Teachers are getting fired and classes are being cut as the tuition rises. This year the state faces a potential $6 billion dollar cut to the K-12, community college, and California State Universities if Proposition 30 fails. This measure, Proposed by Governor Jerry Brown, would raise the state sales tax by .25% for four years and raise the income tax on couples making more than $500,000 a year for seven years. The extra revenue would go towards public education as well as public safety. If the proposition does not pass there would be “trigger” cuts on January 1st taking about $6 billion from the school budget. Another measure to potentially save the school budget cuts is proposition 38, which would raises taxes for Californians across the board. The schools can’t afford to take anymore cuts. Proposition 30 needs to be passed in order to save the schools before it falls farther below the rest of the country.
As a student in the California public school system for the past 16 years, I have a good sense of how important the schools are to the state and how much different they are since the budget cuts in recent years. I have seen teachers cut and the classroom sizes grow in K-12 while classes and sessions are completely cut from community colleges. Students and families already have a difficult time paying tuition that has been rising for years. If 30 fails, we allow people of lower socioeconomic status to be at a disadvantage because they won’t be able to afford the rising costs of tuition.
If we don’t pass Prop. 30, we are allowing our youth to have opportunities stripped from them. If tuition is raised and classes are cut, many students will not be able to afford to go to school and therefore have less opportunity to get a good paying job. The potential trigger cuts would create and unequal opportunity for education across the state. We need to take responsibility for the education of our youth and fund the schools provided to them. California used to have one of the leading school systems in the nation and world but now has fallen in many categories. We now rank 49th in teacher to student ratio with and average of 20.9 students per 1 teacher. The wealthiest people in the state can afford the tax increases that will help the entire state greatly. We can cut our class sizes and keep classes and affordable tuition throughout the California higher education system.
The potential cuts to the K-12 system are equal to about $5.5 billion. If the K-12 system got cut they would have to cut 3 weeks off of the regular school year. That would force the curriculum to be in taught in a shorter time, reducing the quality of the education because it would have to be sped up. Families of these students would also have to provide care for their children for the extra amount of time that they are usually in school.
Aside from the funding to schools, Prop. 30 guarantees extra funding for public safety. This will help keep police on the streets and our communities safer. Other issues such as early releases from jail will likely continue if the safety system does not receive extra funding.
Proposition 30 is written to save the current status of the California public education system. If it is not passed our schools will face a $6 billion cut from K-12 and the higher education system. As citizens of the state we need to save the already underfunded schools. We can keep the schools open for the full amount of time and avoid tuition hikes and classes cut. The alternatives include passing proposition 38 or allowing the massive cuts to happen. Proposition 38 will raise the income taxes across the board which the low income homes cannot afford.
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