Californians are gearing up for the dog days of summer at the beach, lounging in the bleacher seats at the Dodger Stadium and in summer school classrooms. That’s right: summer school, where many kids today are willing to give up their boogie boards for books to improve a grade, jump on the math fast track or get PE out of the way to take Advanced Placement chemistry in the fall. It’s usually the prep work needed to get into the college of their choice. But Gov. Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget, cutting $4.8 billion in education funding, is throwing a wrench into summer school and it’s not even June. This could cause big problems for college-bound students.
Some school districts are already alerting their staffs that summer school will have fewer classes because of a bad state-funding recipe. There are rules and restrictions now mandating how school districts can spend summer school money. When districts factor in the looming education budget cuts proposed by the governor, the summer school resources get watered down. Unless school districts can extract the money from other places, many classes will be out this summer.
This comes at a time when the bar has never been higher for students trying to get into college. Some need the summer school classes to be able to compete with UC-bound students packing a 4.5 grade point average.
Students who want to go the vocational education route and need additional enrichment computer labs to become dental and medical assistants are in the same bind.
There’s a chain reaction to all of this. The governor’s anticipated education cuts will also hit community colleges so they might not be able to offer the summer school enrichment courses for high school students. There is no certain fallback plan.
And the chain reaction continues. The governor’s anticipated school cuts could cause class sizes to get larger. That means Advanced Placement classes in history, chemistry and others could be cut at some high schools because AP classes are traditionally smaller.
That, in turn, will put thousands of college-bound students at a disadvantage because AP classes are usually needed to be accepted, especially at UC colleges.
California school districts can’t wait to finalize their budgets for summer school and beyond. They are preparing for 20,000 teachers, counselors and librarians to be laid off, and vocational education, Advanced Placement courses and sports programs to be cut.
California students didn’t create this budget crisis and their education and futures should not be sacrificed to solve it. The governor and lawmakers must make California’s students a top priority. The final budget agreement must include increased revenues as part of any approach to balancing the budget, or the dog days of summer will become the winter of our discontent.
Assemblyman Levine, D-Woodland Hills, is the representative for Woodland Hills and Los Angeles County in the California State Senate. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.