California Governor Will Cut $5 Billion To Public Education

Should maintaining state budget means punishing the kids?

California...knows how to party. That budgeting and education stuff? Eh, not so much.

Governor Jerry Brown wants to raise taxes in the fall to offset a projected budget shortfall. But it is up to voters to approve. If they shoot it down, then Brown threatens that he will have to cut nearly $5 billion from the public education budget to keep the state afloat.

“Cuts are never nice, because government does a lot of good things," he said about the potential $4.8 billion cut. "But we’ll have the tax measure proposal, we’ll have some cuts, and then we’ll have some trigger cuts in the event that the tax measure does not succeed."

$4.8 billion in public education cuts equals three weeks less of school. In addition to that, if his tax increases are denied,  $200 million will be cut from the University of California and California State University systems. His bill already includes $4.2 billion in cuts to the state’s welfare-to-work program, Medi-Cal and child care services.

As harsh as the news is, Californians should consider themselves lucky for even finding all of this out. Had it not been for someone in Brown's office mistakenly posting the budget plan online almost a week before he planned to announce it, they would be in the dark.