Riverside County, California – Yesterday was a long day for seven local school board members who boarded an early flight to Sacramento and spent the day meeting with legislators to fight for the future of public education in the face of the Governor’s proposed $14.8 billion in cuts to K-12 funding.

The delegation included Riverside County School Boards Association President Maggie Little from Corona-Norco Unified, Don Aikens from Palm Springs Unified, Robin Crist from Murrieta Valley Unified, Jesus Holguin from Moreno Valley Unified, Tom Hunt from Riverside Unified, Tom Thomas from Lake Elsinore Unified, and Barbara Tooker from Temecula Valley Unified who is also a member of the Board of Directors for CSBA.

After initial meetings with Secretary of Education Dr. David Long, and Executive Director of the California School Boards Association Scott Plotkin, the group met with Senator Dennis Hollingsworth, and Assembly Members John Benoit, Kevin Jeffries, Paul Cook, Denise Ducheny, and Bonnie Garcia.

“Our children’s education is being threatened by the Governor’s 10% across-the-board cut to all state-funded programs,” said Robin Crist, Murrieta Valley USD. “The people of California have spoken time and time again about the value they place in public education, and we’re in the Capitol today to let our legislators know that any state budget cuts must be laser-focused on priority programs.”

“We’re asking for greater flexibility and local control of the dollars that will eventually be appropriated to us,” said Tom Hunt, Riverside USD. “We realize there will be cuts because of the overall worsening economic conditions statewide; however, local officials have a better sense of the program preferences their constituents want and need.”

“We’re not talking about cutting the fat out of our operations – we’ve been doing that for years,” said veteran board member Don Aikens from Palm Springs USD. “We’re now into the bone marrow. This could mean cutting successful programs like Class Size Reduction, transportation, school safety officers, art and music, after-school tutoring, counselors, nurses, and librarians. This just can’t happen.”

“The Riverside County School Boards Association believes the only way these dramatic cuts can be softened is for quick and decisive action to be taken on the part of school board members, educators and support staff, parents, and students. We’re leading the charge on behalf of the people who elected us to do the ‘right thing’ by letting our fellow elected officials in Sacramento know that we cannot disenfranchise a generation of California’s children by taking away essential elements of their education,” said Maggie Little, Corona-Norco USD and President of RCSBA. She added the delegation was sent to represent the voices all school board members in Riverside County.

“The only ones who are ultimately responsible for making the decisions about this situation are the governor and the legislators. We all need to be proactive to make sure they understand the ramifications of their decisions. This will widen the achievement gap that we have been working hard to close, and it will derail our progress to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind,” said Tom Thomas, Lake Elsinore USD.

“We had an excellent day and were able to get our message across to our legislators. I don’t think they fully understand the impact this will have on the entire system and at the very personal level,“said Jesus Holguin, Moreno Valley USD. “This is going to mean jobs as well as missing pieces in a child’s education.”

“We are the most over-regulated and underfunded K-12 program in the country,” said Barbara Tooker, Temecula Valley USD, and a member of the Board of Directors for CSBA. “In a state that has the 6^th largest GNP in the world, we rank an abysmal 46^th in the nation in K-12 education, and we are $2,000 below the national average in per pupil spending – even before these proposed cuts. Why are we placing our children at risk because state leaders can’t or won’t fix the structural deficiencies in this state?”