DEAR EDITOR:
Remember the power crisis, and Governor Gray Davis signing a
contract that provided us with outrageously expensive energy?
DEAR EDITOR:
Remember the power crisis, and Governor Gray Davis signing a contract that provided us with outrageously expensive energy? Remember all of those people who told us that the increased cost of energy would one day haunt us? Well, the time has come, and we’re being haunted.
Last week, Davis announced 10 billion dollars in budget cuts. Everything was affected budget wise except for the prisons, but it will soon affect those in a different way. Just last night, Davis announced that the deficit is 34.8 BILLION dollars!
The department that took the hardest blow was education. $3.1 billion, or 31% of the budget cut was from education. Why education? I believe that it is because in the state government totem pole, education is at the bottom, so they cut there because anywhere else, it would have caused outrage. That is no excuse! 35,000 teachers will lose their jobs! That is the population of my home town, Morgan Hill!
I strongly believe that this cut could not only bring our education system down even further, but keep it down. I don’t see why the cuts are in teachers, while there is a large amount of fat at the administration level. There are people with one specific job that could easily take on the jobs of two or three people. If schools get worse, then it’s a proven fact that the crime will get worse also. Do we want to spend more money on the “cure” (prisons), or the prevention?
I propose that the cut be modified so that all departments take generally equal cuts. I also dare to wonder what Davis’ salary is. I know that I’m straying from the point, but I think that it would be wonderful to have a system to determine the governor’s salary based on the job that he is doing. If we were to take California’s average salary, double it, and then make that his salary, he might be motivated to make the economy in California better.
I also believe that higher taxes might be needed. I am a Republican, (even though I’m sometimes embarrassed by the politicians involved with that party) and I hate to hear the words “tax raise!” I know that we’re already paying the highest taxes in the nation, but I’m sure that if citizens were asked to choose between a few more cents on their taxes, or a huge education cut, that citizens would save education from some of the cuts. I understand that this could stunt economic growth, but imagine a generation of adults who are illiterate? I am already envisioning it as I look at some of my classmates, and I’m wondering what school is going to be like with even less money. Please write to your state representative and tell them to reevaluate the distribution of the budget cut.
JEREMY BORGIA, Morgan Hill
Submitted to ed****@ga****.com Thursday, Dec. 26
