Midyear State Budget Cuts Less Drastic For Schools Than Expected

A $1 billion midyear budget cut ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown is less than what officials predicted.

The midyear cut, which becomes effective on Jan. 1, means approximately $100,000 in reductions for Newark Unified, according to Superintendent of Schools Dave Marken.

Marken said the decrease in funds is much less severe than expected.

“At this point, it looks favorable. It looks like a minimal cut and means $100,000 for Newark Unified instead of [more than] one million dollars. That being said we still have a long way to go,” Marken said.

In mid-November, the Legislative Analyst’s Office released a report predicting that state revenues would fall $3.7 billion short under the $88.5 billion initially projected in .

Tuesday’s cuts reflect a state revenue shortfall of about $2.2 billion, according to the Associated Press.

The hardest hits will be in higher education, services for the disabled and child care, according to several published reports. K-12 schools will see a hit of about $248 million to school-bus transportation, a far cry from $1.5 billion cut schools could have faced.

While the reduction does not make major impacts to Newark Unified, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson said the reductions are not what children deserve in California.

“It’s a sad day for California. Taking hundreds of millions of dollars from our schools—on top of the $18 billion in cuts they have already suffered—will only make life harder for students in California’s chronically underfunded schools,” Torlakson said in a statement.

He added, “Mothballing school bus fleets across the state will mean many rural, disabled, and low-income students literally will have no safe way to get to school. Children will lose child care, students will lose the opportunity for a college education, and our overcrowded classrooms will continue to be jammed with 35 to 40 students.”

Patch freelancer contributed to this report.