OAKLAND, CA (June 28, 2011) Dr. Arun Ramanathan, Executive Director of The EdTrust—West, issued the following statement regarding the proposed 2011-12 budget:

“While Democrats slap each other on the back for their ‘budget’ deal and Republicans applaud their efforts to prevent any tax increases, California’s poorest students are once again getting a raw deal from our state’s leadership.  The potential budget deal is based on Wizard of Oz assumptions that there’s a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  If that pot of gold does not materialize, our poorest students and most vulnerable communities will once again take the brunt of state budget cuts through inequitable approaches such as shortening the school year.  It is long past time to develop a real budget solution that solves the boom and bust cycles of California’s state budget.  We have seen courageous Democrats and Republicans in other states forging the difficult compromises and showing the visionary leadership necessary to confront entrenched interests and solve their states’ fiscal crises.  As long as California’s children and communities are at the mercy of lawmakers beholden to special interests from public employee unions to taxpayer associations, we will continue our pattern of smoke and mirrors budgeting.  The result will always be reprehensible cuts that force our children to pay the long-term price for our current dysfunction.”

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About The EdTrust—West

The EdTrust—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.