California's education cuts will kick in if finance officials determine revenue to be $2 billion or more below expectations as of December. If enacted, the $1.5 billion in school reductions could shrink the academic year by as many as seven days in some districts.At least 24 other states have cut higher education funds this year, but none as deeply as California.
Higher tuition, fewer firefighters, shuttered state parks: the $14.6 billion in spending cuts in late June's "austerity budget" may be incomprehensibly large, but Californians are already feeling their real-world effects.
The cuts range from large ($567.2 million less for CalWORKs, the state's welfare program, which may affect more than 325,000 children) -- to small ($200,000 less for the Commission on the Status of Women).
And they could get even deeper, since the budget deal between Gov. Jerry Brown and Democrats in the legislature included budget "triggers" that are set to go off if California's tax revenues don't rise enough to meet optimistic forecasts. This seems increasingly likely given the unexpectedly grim GDP growth numbers released by the federal government on Friday.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-state-budget-20110810,0,1467043.story
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/01/california-budget-cuts_n_915371.html
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