Initiatives On Ballot To Drastically Affect State Funding

CAROLINE REN
Copy Editor

Over the past years, funding for education has decreased as the budget has tightened. Proposition 30, which will be voted on Nov. 6, will increase income taxes on individuals who earn $250,000 or more for seven years and will also increase California sales tax from 7.25 percent to 7.5 percent for four years. If passed, the tax money will go to K-12 schools. However, if Proposition 30 is rejected, then California will lose $6.8 billion, mainly to education.

“Without revenue, our school district will lose $8.8 million a year. Over the past three years, we have lost $53 million,” President of the Alhambra Teachers Association (ATA) Dr. Rosalyn Collier said.

If budget cuts have to be implemented, AUSD will increase the number of furlough days, which are non-instructional days on which students do not attend school, from three days to approximately ten days. On these furlough days, the entire district will be closed, meaning that students lose time in the classroom that could be spent learning and that employees also lose pay.

Moreover, funding for extracurricular programs and teachers’ salaries in AUSD will diminish. AHS has already lost the Advancement via Independent Determination (AVID) program and Crossroads Tutoring this year.

“[P]rograms that are not A-G requirements, like music and sports […] are programs that kids really enjoy and when they are cut, school is less interesting for some students,” social science teacher and union representative for ATA and the California Teachers Association (CTA) Jose Sanchez said.

Furthermore, California education has shifted to Common Core Standards, which are guidelines for the information that all California teachers now have to teach, meaning that schools will need to buy new textbooks. In order to buy these textbooks, AUSD may have to lay off teachers, increase class sizes or cut extracurricular programs.

In addition, Proposition 30 affects higher education as well. If the proposition is rejected, the CSU Board of Trustees plans to make up for budget cuts by increasing college tuition by five percent.

“All students’ futures are at stake with [the increase in] university tuition. Opportunities at universities are going to be limited,” Sanchez said.

The option is between paying thousands of dollars more for college tuition or paying a 0.25 percent increase on sales tax for four years.

Two other initiatives on the ballot are Propositions 32 and 38, which relate to campaign funding and taxes, respectively.

Corporations can endorse groups that affect campaigns. For instance, Americans for Responsible Leadership donated $11 million to Small Business Action Committee, which opposes Proposition 30.

Proposition 32 bans corporate and union donations to candidates and prevents corporations, unions and the government from using automatic deductions from employees’ wages on political affairs. However, opponents of Prop 32 claim that it is disguised as political reform but actually favors special interest groups.

“Proposition 32 is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public about how political affairs are funded,” Collier said at the Town Hall meeting.

Proposition 38, like Proposition 30, raises taxes; however, Prop 38 raises income taxes for 12 years on all California residents who earn over $7,316 a year. It uses a sliding scale, which means that the lowest income earners pay a 0.4 percent increase, while individuals who earn over $2.5 million pay a 2.2 percent increase.

If Prop 38 passes, seven of the ten billion dollars that will be generated will provide for public schools and early childhood development programs. The other three billion is saved by the state to pay off debts.

With these three initiatives on the ballot, funding for education is a prominent issue.
“It will be harder for the future generation [to get a college education], especially in this economy,” senior Anthony Le said.