BY EMMA GALLEGOS
The economics
of education This year has been unkind to California’s public schools system: Budget talks at the state capitol stalled. The economy didn’t relent. State revenues fell short of their estimates. THE cuts hit education. The cycle repeated. Voters granted the school systems (or more appropriately, state legislators) no reprieve and rejected a package of propositions 1A-1E in May, which could have provided some stopgap money to restore a fraction of the cuts. Within four-and-a-half months, the bottom fell out, and even staid education veterans were at a loss for finding the appropriate adjectives that could describe just how much worse this year was compared to previous years. “I wouldn’t even venture to guess the long-term impact, but short-term we’re certainly looking at reductions like we haven’t seen before,” says John Pappalardo, chief financial officer for the Pasadena Unified School District. “There’s just as much work to do — with less people to do it.”
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY JEROME ORENSE
ROSEFALL09 | 27