State Fund Cuts Would Hit Disadvantaged Students the Hardest

Orange County’s disadvantaged students would suffer most from the funding cuts in Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed 1987-88 state budget, county school officials said Friday.

“We were anticipating a very stringent year for 1987-88, and it looks like we’ll have one,” said John Nicoll, superintendent of the Newport-Mesa Unified School District. “I don’t think much of it (the budget).”

What Nicoll and other educators are worried about is the governor’s proposal to eliminate six so-called “categorical programs,” which provide tutorial help and materials for disadvantaged and gifted students.

The targeted programs include part of the Economic Impact Aid Program, the Urban Impact Aid Program, the Miller-Unruh Reading Program, the Meade Aid Program, the Indian Early Childhood Education Program, and the Gifted and Talented Education Program.

Bernard Kalscheuer, a spokesman for the state Department of Finance, said the programs will be phased out over two years, with the $132 million in savings to be used to reduce the size of first-grade classes.

The governor’s $39-billion budget includes $11.7 billion from the state’s general fund for kindergarten-through-12th-grade education, a $240-million increase from last year, Kalscheuer said.

Deukmejian did not cut funding for categorical bilingual education. But many school districts supplement their bilingual budgets with monies from other categorical programs. Therefore, officials of districts with large numbers of students in need of bilingual education are concerned.

In the Santa Ana Unified School District, for example, Supt. Ed Krass said that potential cuts in bilingual programs would be disastrous and constitute a Catch-22 for the 37,000-student district. About half of the students are classified as limited English-speaking, he said, and that number rises to 70% for the kindergarten-through-fifth-grade group.

“We are heavily impacted with students who need assistance in learning the English language,” Krass said. The district provided about $1 million for bilingual education and the state paid another $3 million, Krass said. The governor’s proposal appears to doom the program because “additional funds are not available,” he added.

But without bilingual education, which provides employment for about 200 teachers, the district would be “out of compliance” with state requirements for such a program. “So it’s a Catch-22,” he said.

Another threatened program is remedial reading for elementary students, a project that employs about 13 teachers, district spokeswoman Diane Thomas said.

Lawrence Kemper, assistant superintendent for the Garden Grove Unified School District, said that while he was sympathetic with the state’s financial constraints, “when kids come to you with learning needs, you have to provide for them in some way. We are most concerned about the impact in bilingual education and where the potential for cuts are there.” The district has an estimated 6,000 students who study English as a second language. Kemper said that if the governor’s proposal is approved, about 50 American Indian students will lose tutorial and cultural programs.

Marie Otto, superintendent of the Huntington Beach Union High School District, said Deukmejian’s proposal to limit the cost-of-living adjustments would mean drastic cuts. She noted that the district has already cut some programs, including all counselors and some health services. With the limits, other programs also would face budget cuts and class sizes also would probably swell, she said.

Huntington Beach has a ratio of 30 students per teacher, “and that’s high,” Otto said. She suggested that Deukmejian’s call for reduced ratios in elementary schools from 28 to 22 students should be rethought.

“I don’t think class-size reductions are as crucial at that level,” she said, explaining that high school teachers have more work in terms of papers to grade, other homework and exams.

“I think the proposals may upset enough people that we’ll see a backlash,” she said. “I hope so, anyway.”

In the Irvine Unified School district, where more than 1,000 of the district’s 19,000 students participate in special classes for the gifted and talented, officials said they will not eliminate the gifted program, despite the proposed cutbacks.

“My understanding is that the state funding for gifted programs is minimal and this will just make it worse,” said A. Stanley Corey, superintendent of the Irvine district. “We will undoubtedly maintain our program one way or another.”

Nevertheless, Corey added, “we, of course, will do what we can to resist having the small state funding we now get from being taken away.”

Some school officials, however, see Deukmejian’s $132-million slashing of the six special programs for what it is: the opening dance in a perennial political ball.

“Let’s be practical,” said Newport-Mesa Supt. Nicoll. “This is just the opening shot. The Legislature will not sit still for cutting their favorite programs. I’ve been here too long to get carried away at the moment.”