Cuts at schools could be 'catastrophic'

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's budget cuts would devastate public schools, with hits being leveled almost immediately, local education officials said.

Schwarzenegger has declared a fiscal emergency, called a special legislative session and called on nearly every state department to immediately cut spending 10 percent of its budget to solve a current-year $3.3 billion deficit.

The shortfall is expected to swell to $14 billion next year. In Schwarzenegger's plan, more than $4 billion will be eliminated from K-12 and community college funding to help fill that gap.

The immediate, mid-year cuts could mean the loss of $1.5 million from Santa Rosa schools this school year.

If his proposed budget clears the Legislature, the largest school district in Sonoma County could lose $7 million more -- about 5 percent -- from its budget next school year.

"And that is just the base," Assistant Superintendent Doug Bower said. "Anything that gets hit in other areas is just going to add to that."

The 109-campus community college system is slated to take a $40 million hit this year.

"Asking schools to take money out of a school year that is already 60 percent gone is extremely difficult," said Santa Rosa School board member Bill Carle. "It's pretty distressing."

To cut education spending as he proposes, Schwarzenegger must convince lawmakers to waive the education funding guarantees of voter-approved Proposition 98 for the first time since the 2003-2004 financial crisis that helped sweep then-Gov. Gray Davis out of office in the recall.

"It's ironic that this is the year the governor wanted to call the year of education," said David Sanchez, president of the 340,000-member California Teachers Association. "It's just ridiculous. We could very seriously see some problems with teachers possibly losing their jobs, librarians losing their jobs, counselors, school nurses."

Schwarzenegger vowed not to raise taxes.

Declining enrollment in some schools and districts could free up funds, said Jeannie Oropeza, a program budget manager with the state Department of Finance.

"Schools really need to take a closer look at their budgets and start from scratch, if you will," she said. "There are choices, obviously they are difficult, but they will have choices to make."

But schools already are stretched thin, said Scott Plotkin, executive director of the California School Boards Association.

"It may very well be catastrophic," he said. "There are no big-ticket items in any single school district that are going to be available to make up that kind of money."

Bower, who has worked for Santa Rosa schools for more than 30 years, said not since the years immediately after implementation of Proposition 13 in 1978 has the financial outlook for education been so bleak.

"We have had several (recent) years of hard times based on the economy," he said. "To me, I would categorize those as severe storms. This one is looking more like a hurricane."

You can reach Staff Writer Kerry Benefield at 526-8671

or kerry.benefield@

pressdemocrat.com.