Bigger class sizes, more teacher layoffs and a shorter school year. Those were a few of the changes school superintendents from around the state warned a Senate committee about Thursday.
The group was at the Capitol to testify during an hours-long budget hearing about the impact of deeper education cuts. Steve Ladd is Superintendent of the Elk Grove School District, near Sacramento. He gave lawmakers a rundown of the cuts that have already been made.
“Shortened school year by 5 days, with four non-school days already eliminated,” said Ladd. “We eliminated summer school last year. We have increased class sizes in some regard because we eliminated our ninth-grade class size reduction. We’ve eliminated elementary library media technicians.”
Ladd says if lawmakers adopt an all-cuts budget the district would have to make 40 to 50 million dollars in additional reductions.
Democrats support Governor Jerry Brown’s plan to extend tax increases in order to avoid deeper cuts to schools. Republicans oppose that, and argue that there are other places to cut instead.
