Viewpoint

Viewpoint: Don’t punish student victims of budget crisis

By Chris Ungar

C alifornia’s serious budget crisis was not caused by our students or schools, so let’s not punish the victims. Instead, let’s demand that our elected officials have open and honest conversations about new revenues as well as cuts.

There is a group that takes this message to our local legislators. Since 1988, the Tri-Counties Education Coalition has been a partnership among parents, teachers, school support staff, administrators and school board members. We are one of the oldest education coalitions in California, and we advocate for schools and children in Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

Three times each year, TCEC hosts speakers who are educational leaders. This year we heard from Congresswoman Lois Capps, California Teacher’s Association President David Sanchez and the San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara county superintendents of schools. To a person, the state budget crisis and the governor’s brutal proposal was the number one topic. If Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger gets his way, schools will find their revenues slashed, employees will lose their jobs, class sizes will rise, electives will disappear and children will suffer.

For more information and links to contact Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, Sen. Abel Maldonado and Gov. Schwarzenegger, visit www.saveslocountyschools.org . In May, the TCEC will visit Sacramento and lobby our legislators. Our message will be simple: protect kids, protect schools and protect our future.

On a local level, we would ask that everyone contact their state representatives; tell them that the meat cleaver method of budgeting is unacceptable and that hurting children will not be tolerated.

Chris Ungar is a trustee of the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, regional director of the California School Boards Association and a Special Education Director for the San Luis Obispo County Office of Education.