Gov's Proposed Education Cuts draw Demos

Students, teachers, and their supporters greeted the California Teachers Association bus festooned with slogans including "Cuts Hurt Kids!" as it travelled the length of the peninsula yesterday. After making stops at several key protest points, with hundreds gathered at each, the bus passed by the Mountain View/Los Altos border where about 150 gathered on all four corners of a major intersection with signs and songs.

Meanwhile, at around the same time, the governor released his revised state budget proposal. It included lottery and budget reform proposals which would require approval from voters on the November ballot.

If the lottery plan fails, Schwarzenegger will ask the Legislature to approve a temporary 1 cent increase in the state sales tax to pay for the reserve fund, but schools still will lose about $4 billion in anticipated revenue because Schwarzenegger's plan does NOT include cost-of-living increases.

Recently installed Assembly Speaker and mother Karen Bass was bemused by the Governor's proposal. "This sounds amazing. How does all this work? It sounds risky, almost like a Rubik's cube budget, not a long-term, structurally balanced budget," the Associated Press quotes Ms. Bass saying.

California currently ranks 46th in the nation in per pupil spending.