The community colleges, Cal State and the UC systems will see a shift in state funding in the 2010-2011 fiscal year if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s proposed budget is passed by the California State Legislature the K-12.
The budget proposal was released on January 8. According to the governor, the amount California will spend on state-funded services like public education will total at $82.9 billion dollars, a $3.2 billion decrease from last fiscal year’s revised budget.
Despite this, K-12 education would receive almost $37 million, which is about 31 percent of the proposed budget, and higher education would receive $13 million, which is about 10.6 percent of the proposed budget, if the proposed budget is passed by the Legislature.
California Community College System Chancellor Jack Scott reacted to the proposed budget in a January 8 press release. He said that the governor’s proposed budget is a welcome change to the usually deep cuts to education in the state budget.
“Given the state’s dire fiscal circumstance, the proposal for the California Community Colleges is as favorable as we could have hoped,” Scott said in the release.
The governor’s proposed budget underscores the reality that money invested in public education is money saved on incarceration of California’s youth, Scott said. California budgets in years past have prioritized education over prison as
