OAKLAND, CA (May 16, 2011) The Education Trust—West issued the following statement regarding the release of Governor Brown’s May Revision:
The Education Trust—West is pleased that Governor Brown has chosen to limit further cuts to education in his revised budget. However, we remain concerned about the continuing budget shortfall and hope that a compromise can soon be forged that results in the long-term budget solution vital to our students and schools.
After four years of unrelenting bad news for our state education system, we commend Governor Brown for prioritizing the needs of the students in our K-12 system. As local districts consider their final budgets, we hope that the Governor will send a strong follow-up message encouraging districts to restore critical education services for our highest need students that have been devastated by years of inequitable local budget cuts.
In addition, we are deeply concerned by the projected elimination of critical funding for the state’s education data systems— California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS) and California Longitudinal Teacher Information Data Education System (CALTIDES). These cuts may jeopardize the nearly $5 billion in federal funding California received upon pledging to finish building these systems. As the nation’s leader in technology, it is simply unacceptable that California does not have a fully functioning education data system and lags far behind states such as Florida and Texas. Without an education data system, it is impossible to make informed decisions on behalf of students as we spend scarce education resources. A step away from CALPADS is a step away from the increased transparency and accountability that is vital to ongoing community support for our public schools. If our state leaders are serious about closing achievement gaps, we must adequately fund these systems— to do any less is a step backwards.
# # #
About The Education Trust—West
The Education Trust—West works for the high academic achievement of all students at all levels, pre-k through college. We expose opportunity and achievement gaps that separate students of color and low-income students from other youth, and we identify and advocate for the strategies that will forever close those gaps.
