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Berkeley Unified School District officials and parents will be in Sacramento Wednesday to protest Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger’s proposal to slash school funding by $4.8 billion over the next 18 months. 

The group of 20 from Berkeley will be joined by other districts at the state capital, and will try to meet with the governor. 

“We put in a request to Sacramento to meet with Gov. Schwarzenneger for a few minutes,” said Berkeley district spokesperson Mark Coplan. “We are hoping to get a few minutes with one of his staff members that day.” 

The proposed budget cuts have dominated discussions at Berkeley school board and PTA meetings over the last two months and pose a big question mark on the future of programs, school staff and classroom sizes statewide. 

The Berkeley public schools could lose up to $3 million, which district officials said would prove damaging for the district. 

The proposed K-12 funding would slash $400 million from the state education funds this year and take away $4.4 billion in the next fiscal year, which means $700 less for each of the approximately 6.3 million public school students in the state.  

District Superintendent Bill Huyett told the Berkeley High School Parent Teacher and Student Association (PTSA) last week that Wednesday’s visit would be the first of many trips to Sacramento.  

He repeatedly emphasized the importance of saving Prop. 98—a voter-approved statute that establishes a minimum level of funding for California schools—which the governor proposes to suspend. 

“It takes a two-thirds vote of the legislature to say we will not support public education,” he told PTSA members. “We only need to secure over one-third to stop him. In California we have highly qualified teachers and great programs, and what we find ourselves in is a state that won’t support public education ... I am very discouraged that Republicans and Democrats are not supporting public education like they should.” 

Huyett said he would be putting together an advisory committee made up of district employees and union members which would advise the school board on the proposed cuts. 

“I really want to go ahead with the achievement gap, but that’s not the work that’s been handed to me at the outset,” said the superintendent, who is in his first month on the job. “We are required to line up our budget with what the governor proposes. The community needs to understand that the superintendent is only human ... We have to go through some tough times.” 

The group will spend Wednesday afternoon meeting with the California School Board Association to get updates on the proposed cuts and statewide action by education coalitions. 

Discussions with the Association of California School Administrators, state Assemblymember Loni Hancock and officials from Senator Don Perata’s office have also been scheduled. 

Hancock, along with Assemblymember Sandré Swanson, was one of the five to vote against the proposed cuts. “It’s simply untenable to cut K-12 funding,” she told the Planet Monday. 

“We cannot make across-the-board 10 percent cuts and expect our schools to provide the quality of programs we want and expect for our students.” 

County Superintendent Sheila Jordan, also a Berkeley High parent, told the Planet that she would lobby legislators to adopt alternatives to the cuts. 

“The governor’s statement that this is not a revenue problem but a spending problem is just rhetorical nonsense,” she said. “In order to run a state of this size you need to spend money on educating our citizens. We don’t need new taxes, we should reinstate existing taxes ... Close some of the loopholes that is letting the wealthy become wealthier and the poor even more poor.” 

Jordan said that if the cuts occur, 15 out of 18 school districts in Alameda County will face negative certification. 

“We are focusing on issues of race and class right now,” she said. “All those strategies and training that help to create a strong curriculum will be jeopardized.” 

Education Week recently gave California a D+ for public school funding efforts. According to county officials, the state—which currently spends $2,000 less per student than the national average and ranks 46th nationally in school funding—ranks behind less prosperous states such as Louisiana and Mississippi.  

“We should be in the top five funded states in education in the country,” said Berkeley High PTSA president Mark van Krieken. “Instead we are languishing in the bottom five. I want to personally sit down with Arnold and tell him to put down something on the ballot that will make us average ... We need a Reach for Mediocrity Campaign. If the state doesn’t do anything to improve public education funding then it’s up to Berkeley to use city taxes to fund our children’s education.” 

District officials said they were also hoping to head to Sacramento for a statewide rally in May.