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                 STATE BUDGET CRISIS                  

TVEA Leaders Find Sacramento Visit Enlightening

TVEA President Ed Sibby and Vice President Dana Miller spent the entire day of February 28th at the state capital in an attempt to communicate the devastating impact of the current budget proposal on our local schools.

Although seemingly sympathetic to our plight, staff members from Dennis Hollingsworth and Kevin Jeffries responses to our description of how our students were being placed in harm's way made it clear they are currently unwilling to do anything about it. "We don't have a budget problem, we have a spending problem." stated Craig DeLuz, Capital Director and staffer for Jeffries. We ended up delivering about 3000 letters to him instead of Jeffries, who cancelled our face-to-face meeting at the last minute. When confronted with the spending of $5,800.00 per pupil in California, making California 46th in the nation, both offices had no response. Both Hollingsworth and Jeffries are part of a contingent of legislators who have pledged not to consider tax increases under any circumstances. Lindsey Stovall, Hollingsworth's Legislative Director, in response to a question about their considering cuts along with some revenue enhancements, responded, "We tried that under Governor Wilson, and it did not work very well, and we're not going to do that again." Given our legislators' current positions, it seems unlikely they will do anything that will aid our students in their time of need. We left Sacramento wondering if our elected representatives don't represent our students and the schools in their home districts, who do they represent?