Still no budget in our fair state….and real consequences are starting to result. For instance, there is this from yesterday’s San Francisco Chronicle:
Teacher Melissa Roman is supposed to have just 20 kids in her Algebra 1 class under a state program meant to keep math classes small so students learning English can get enough attention.
Instead, she has 43.
“It’s terrible,” said Roman, who teaches at James Logan High School in Union City. “They’re not going to get a good education – the kids in the back on the floor can’t really see the board. And it’s harder for them to focus with that many kids in the class.”
The overcrowded classroom is among many painful consequences of the state’s record-breaking budget delay on California’s 6.3 million public school students, the state’s schools chief and leading educators said Thursday.
Nursing homes may close according to SF’s CBS station.
The record-long California budget stalemate has senior citizens who could be soon out on the street, because their care facilities are not getting paid.
And KPBS says that the hardest hit of all are state supported child care services.
People who provide state-funded child care and pre-school services to low income Californians are among those being hit hardest by the budget stand off.As the impasse drags into its third month, some of those providers are wondering how long they can hold on.
Patty Siegel is with the California Child Care Resource and Referral Network. She says many of those centers are almost entirely reliant on their funding from the state… and September is a tough time to be broke.
Siegel: The crisis couldn’t be coming at a worse time because in fact while the summer months may be with vacations a little bit less intense, September is one of our most intensive months for child care.
Call your state senator and assembly person and tell him or her to DO something!
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Meanwhile, it came out early this morning in the LA Times that Sarah Palin is pressuring Arnold Schwarzenegger to veto to a fee “on cargo containers going through the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, setting off a wave of criticism from California environmentalists.”
The nanny state downside raises its ugly head. Someone has to pay for all the demanded services.
Quiz:
What is the underlying cause of poor schools in CA where 40% of children quality for free lunch program (highest in the nation).
A) California taxes are way too low.
B) California legislators and educators are stupid.
C) Immigration of poor and uneducated people.
D) Democrats.
E) All of the above.
I just looked at my tax returns, in the words of another “where’s my money”, I would agree with all the above except “A”. And if problem “C” is not stopped the budget problems can only get worse.
I see the new Field poll gives roughly equal support (about a third each) to the Governator and the Dems plan for a budget – both call for taxes and cuts – but only 19 per cent for the GOP plan of “Borrow and Spend.”