Budget Cuts Cost Schools $900,000

The Palos Verdes Unified School District appreciates the action taken by the state Assembly and Senate to preserve in the budget passed by the Legislature the Proposition 98 funding guarantees for public schools.

Unfortunately, the budget as altered by the governor does not do well for this school district. The difference, for Peninsula schools, between the Legislature’s budget and the governor’s revised version is $900,000. This decrease is due to the action by the governor (1) to reduce the cost of living adjustment from 4.76% to 3%, (2) to remove the declining enrollment adjustment funding for all districts except specific high school districts, and (3) to redefine property tax allocations to count some collections as property tax which previously had not been counted as such.

As a result of the $900,000 loss in anticipated funding, the district is entering another round of cuts. In June, the board authorized $1.5 million in program and personnel cuts. The board will now have to take action to further reduce programs and services.

The state is shortsighted in reducing resources for public schools. Educating our young people and providing for the needs of young children are the most effective ways of assuring that demands on the state for medical care, mental health care, social welfare and prisons will decrease instead of grow. The public school system is a long-term investment in the community, the state and the nation.

NANCY MAHR

Staff/community/legislative

relations assistant

Palos Verdes Peninsula Unified School District