[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Mark DeSaulnier
Member
California State Assembly

Contra Costa County was home to contrasting press conferences this week. Though both focused on the budget, they were very different events that evidenced very different understandings of the impact of the state’s budget crisis on Californians.

On Monday, Senate President pro Tem Don Perata, Senator Torlakson, Democratic legislators and I joined educators, parents, students and community activists. We discussed what a $4.8 billion dollar cut to education will look like for kids and teachers. The press conference was held on the front lawn of a local school, open to all.

On Thursday, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger had a “discussion” with a hand-selected crowd of mostly business leaders. It largely ignored the pain this budget crisis will inflict on working Californians.

He suggested his proposed 10 percent across-the-board cuts (including a $4.8 billion slice out of schools) won’t impact the lives of Californians.

Californians have needs. Our education system is failing our kids. Our healthcare system is woefully inadequate. In these times of foreclosures and stagnant job growth, hard-working Californians are slipping through the huge holes in our social service safety net.

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Frank D. Russo

The steps on all four sides of the State Capitol in Sacramento got a lot of attention yesterday. Citizens from across the state held back to back rallies on matters pertaining to the California budget, education, social services, juvenile incarceration, and pesticide spraying for moths.

But the biggest of the day was a bit unusual—over 40 Superintendents of Public Instruction from Los Angeles County and 100 statewide joined parents, teachers, and school kids to deliver a message to the legislature and the Governor to not balance the California state budget by cutting education. Think the state budget is a boring topic—or that it’s all about numbers? You should have heard these education experts, charged with the responsibility to make it all work, talk passionately about their mission. More than one of these leaders from Los Angeles County told the crowd about how they had struggled and improved schools that had failing our kids—some to the point that they now receive statewide recognition—and how they will not allow this to go down the drain with what one called “sine wave budgeting.”