Oakland School Budget Cuts Pit Primary Vs. Adult Education. Category: News from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Thursday January 28, 2010

Oakland School Budget Cuts Pit Primary Vs. Adult Education. Category: News from The Berkeley Daily Planet - Thursday January 28, 2010

Rigoberto Alvarado says he’s living the American Dream. He came to the United States with very little money and no knowledge of English and worked his way up to a manager position at Oakland’s Waterfront Hotel. 

Alvarado says he owes his ascent to Oakland’s adult education program. However, due to budget cuts, the next immigrant seeking to obtain job skills might not be so fortunate. 

The Governing Board of the Oakland Unified School District was expected to approve a $4.5 million cut to the funding of adult education in their annual budget at Wednesday night’s regular meeting. The cuts are part of an effort to absorb a $27 million shortfall in this year’s budget without significantly impacting primary education. While adult education might be the only educational program that faces dramatic cuts this year, the impact could be detrimental for a large segment of the city’s population. 

“Nobody gets involved in education to make cuts,” said Superintendent Tony Smith as he presented his budget recommendations at the school board’s Dec. 16 meeting. “Our primary goal is to protect K–12 education.” 

The cuts are the most recent in a series of hits to Oakland’s adult education program that will see its budget reduced by 50 percent since the 2008–09 school year.