The housing crisis has triggered an economic downturn throughout the nation, affecting all sectors of the economy. Predictably, the biggest losers have come from the working class. Wall Street barons are being bailed out, while services that provide for workers’ needs are being systematically drained.
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In response, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has called for a 10 percent across-the-board cut in public services. These actions amount to a $2 billion reduction in health care for the poor, transportation and school programs.
Schwarzenegger’s proposals have taken precedence over common-sense solutions. One small but important step, for example, would be to eliminate tax loopholes that allow buyers of yachts, airplanes and expensive RVs to avoid paying sales tax if they keep their newly bought luxuries out of state for 90 days. The rich enjoy numerous benefits that cost a fortune to taxpayers and could be slashed to alleviate the current crisis.
Public education would be hit the hardest by the governor’s draconian budget cuts. Schwarzenegger has recommended a massive $4.8 billion reduction in public education funding. This is on top of a $400 million reduction in state appropriations to public schools for the year, of which $360 million will be cut from K-12 schools.
These constitute the largest cuts ever proposed for California public schools. California State University, the biggest state university system in the nation, will take a $386 million cut. In all probability, there will be a 10 percent student fee increase at all 23 CSU campuses. Undergraduate fees have already almost doubled since 2001.
Last week, more then 900 students and faculty at San Diego State University protested these cuts, arguing they would harm the quality of their classes. The reductions will lead to layoffs in faculty, larger class sizes and fewer students being admitted to CSU campuses. Larger class sizes, in particular, could reach unmanageable levels—a surefire way to stunt student achievement.
According to the California Teachers Association, 110,000 teachers could lose their jobs. Many predict the budget cuts will destroy extracurricular programs and classes in subjects such as arts, music and physical education.
All this is happening when California already ranks 47th in the nation in per-pupil spending. Even post-Katrina Louisiana spends more money per student than California.
For the second time in four years, Schwarzenegger is also suspending voter-approved Prop 98, which sets aside funding for schools based on student population. The move will deprive cash-starved public schools of another $1.4 billion. School districts, which plan their finances around the governor’s annual budget proposal, will surely lay off additional employees due to the magnitude of the proposed cuts.
The biggest and one of the most troubled school districts in the state, the Los Angeles Unified School District, would lose $560 million in the coming year. Pink slips have already been handed to 3,000 administrative staff members. Though California has some of the worst school staffing ratios in all of the United States, most state districts will be dispensing layoff notifications to their workers.
Public education does not thrive under the free-market model that is pervasive in bourgeois economic ideology. Public services, such as education and transportation, have continued to decline in quality while corporate profits skyrocket.
That is the normal order of things under capitalism. Public services will continue to be picked apart by bourgeois politicians to bail the capitalists out of an economic crisis that they themselves created. Only under socialism, when the working class has state power, will the interests of working people take precedence over those of the capitalist class.
