On the same day a coalition of more than a half dozen organizations representing California teachers from elementary to university faculty held a press conference to address the financial crisis now gripping "California’s crumbling education system," the results of a national report on literacy - conducted annually by Central Connecticut State University - were announced, offering some disturbing news to Californians about the state's declining literacy levels last year, while presenting a measurable symptom of more than eight years of cuts to the state's education budgets.
Even California's total number of cities included in the literacy study, more than any other state, failed to garner even a single spot among the nation's "Top Ten Most Literate Cities."
The news from CCSU’s New Britain, Connecticut campus reporting California's statewide literacy decline, arrived in Sacramento the same morning California educators were conducting their news conference, with the report appearin to validate the teacher’s concern and justify their plea to California’s governor and legislators: The state’s educational system is failing and Sacramento must restore more than four billion dollars in funding to prevent irreparable harm to a system vital to the state's economy and future.
California's education system once promised California's