San Diegans Enter Statewide Budget Fray : Leaders Join to Pressure Governor on Schools

A broad-based group of San Diego County community leaders, saying significant improvements still are needed in California’s public education system, pledged Wednesday to fight for a substantial increase in Gov. George Deukmejian’s proposed state education budget.

The group will coordinate county parents, business leaders and education officials as part of the new California Movement for Educational Reform, a permanent grass-roots organization set up last month by state Supt. of Public Instruction Bill Honig to press for greater funding commitments.

Mike Madigan, a vice president for Pardee Construction Co., and San Diego Councilwoman Celia Ballesteros will serve as co-chairmen for the county campaign, which hopes to raise $300,000 to $400,000 toward the statewide goal of $4.6 million. The state total represents $1 for every student in kindergarten through 12th grade.

“Everyone understands that there is nothing more important to our future than our children, and that nothing is more important for them than an adequate public education system,” Madigan told a press conference Wednesday.

“And it’s terribly important to maintain momentum and provide the kind of public education that our children deserve,” Madigan added, referring to educators’ fears that school improvements made as a result of large funding increases the last four years will now end.

Bipartisan Movement

Madigan, a Republican who was a chief aide to Pete Wilson while Wilson was mayor, stressed the bipartisan nature of the organization.

Already, the San Diego Unified School District, the state’s second-largest and the nation’s eighth-largest urban district, has tentatively cut $11 million in school programs and sent layoff notices to almost 100 teachers in response to the Deukmejian budget.

Education funding under the governor’s proposal leaves San Diego Unified short $10.6 million it needs simply to maintain the current level of school services, considering normal growth and inflation, for an estimated 116,000 students next fall. Other districts face similar shortfalls, such as the $3-million gap for Sweetwater Union High School District in the South Bay, the county’s third-largest district.

“Class sizes will rise, replenishment of materials will stop, but absolutely the most tragic result of all will be the incredible demoralization of the (people) who work in education,” said Anthony Trujillo, the Sweetwater superintendent who will coordinate the San Diego County effort for California Movement.

Trujillo said Wednesday that educators see themselves as an army finally on the move whose commander in chief has decided to cut the fuel supply.

Others lending their names to the county effort are Rolf Benirschke of the San Diego Chargers and the Rev. George Walker Smith, a former city school board member and a prominent member of the black community.

Building Public Pressure

The California Movement hopes to create enough public pressure to force the state Legislature and Deukmejian to allocate more money for schools, and to gather sufficient signatures for a state ballot initiative in 1988 to permit the state to spend a higher percentage of funds for education than allowed under the so-called Gann constitutional limit that is now part of state law.

The group will sponsor schoolhouse parties statewide on May 7 to raise funds and to symbolize its efforts.