August 3, 2009 - Posted by Alex Goldman
Last week California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will balance California's $26.3 billion deficit by making massive cuts to public education, health care, and other public services that will have a devastating effect on low-income families in the state.
The $6.1 billion cut to public education will force school districts to fire thousands of teachers and compel the state's universities and community colleges to raise tuition by 20 percent and cut enrollment by 40,000. The additional tuition fees may put college out of reach for many low-income students. According to the National Report Card on Higher Education, low-income students already devote 40 percent of their income to pay for public four-year colleges, even after financial aid.
The new budget also contains huge cuts to Medi-Cal -- the state's Medicaid program -- and the Healthy Families Program, which currently provides low-cost health insurance to children whose families don't qualify for Medi-Cal. The cuts will eliminate health insurance for 900,000 children, bring the state total of uninsured children to 1.7 million.
Categories: Education, Health Care
