Quality education for California children is a top priority for Republicans. We believe it is important for the Legislature and the Governor to ensure that students are receiving the best education possible from the great investment made by taxpayers into the state’s kindergarten through 12th grade education system.

That’s why the Education Coalition’s accusations that Schwarzenegger is “cutting” K-12’s main funding source, Proposition 98, by $4.8 billion, and its claims that the Governor’s budget could require 107,000 teachers to be laid off is fiction.

The Ed Coalition’s (headed by the Teacher’s Union) repeated claim is clearly meant to imply a doomsday scenario, as is the claim that the Governor’s proposed budget will require the firing of all these educators, which amounts to more than a third of the state’s teachers being let go.

The Ed Coalition’s numbers just don’t add up when we consider that the average cost of a California teacher is $75,000 per year, including benefits. That means 107,000 teachers cost $8 billion annually. How is it that the Governor’s proposed budget would require layoffs worth $8 billion? The answer is, it would not.

As the chart below shows, the most significant fact regarding Proposition 98 spending for K-12 education is that the Governor’s proposed spending for 2008-09 is $7.4 billion higher than it was five years ago, while average daily attendance during that same period has declined by 74,000 students.

In reality, the governor’s proposed spending for 2008-2009 is actually only $1.1 billion less than his 2007-2008 spending. Overall education spending has increased almost 20 percent in the past five years. Instead of demanding more, these groups should try to spend efficiently with what they have – for the sake of our students.

As Sacramento Bee political columnist Daniel Weintraub accurately observed:

“… the Democrats will try to frame it as a choice between cutting education and raising taxes … This strategy makes sense because the schools are the most popular program in the budget. If they were truly the top priority, Democrats could fund them first and then try to raise taxes to pay for other needs. But that would not be as effective as a political strategy.”

Republicans are not eager to cut education spending, but we believe education cuts should be properly reported and not distorted for political gain. We also believe that government should live within its means, just as families do. The solution to the state’s fiscal crisis does not require tax hikes. Members from both parties need to come together to craft a budget that preserves essential services within available resources and not use our public education system as a pawn in the budget process.