Budget Agreement Has Significant Effects on Children — Increases in Education, Cuts to CalWORKS, Mental Health

A society’s investment decisions reveal much about its priorities. On Oct. 8, the Governor signed the 2010-11 budget for California. As a Foundation that uses data to elevate the priority of children’s health in California, we should note that the new budget illustrates the value our society places on programs that serve children. The Governor made nearly $1 billion in line-item cuts, including key child care, special education, and welfare programs. On the other hand, the 2010-11 budget also increases spending on K-12 education, community colleges, and UC education over last year. The California Budget Project provides an analysis of the key provisions in the budget agreement.

Key provisions:

• A $256 million reduction that ends CalWORKS Stage 3 child care, effective Nov. 1
• Child Welfare Services program funding cut by $80 million
• $43.8 billion in K-12 education, a slight increase over the last fiscal year
• $133 million cut from mental health services for special education students

For the full analysis, visit http://www.cbp.org/pdfs/2010/100618_Budget_Comparision.pdf or see a recent article about the 2010-11 budget agreement at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/09/MNBR1FQDB7.DTL.

Posted by Jordan Handcox

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 7:25 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.