Spring is upon us. Youth, chance and motion come to mind. There is a limbering up of the muscles, freshly awoken from cold inactivity. There is a yawn, a clearing of the head as if a coma is being emerged from, a burst of enthusiastic anticipation as to what will be. Perhaps naive but nonetheless, a feeling that things could be different this time around.
Culver City Unified School District officials will soon begin the process of taking the pulse of the community to see if they are willing to pass a capital improvement bond to repair district facilities. The CCUSD is hiring a consultant to do a survey to gather information in order to gauge the interest of passing a bond measure. The school district has identified several facilities that need to be upgraded including the Robert Frost Auditorium and the football field at Culver City High School. In addition, several other buildings are also in need of repair, due to the age of the structures.
On the State level, sequestration cuts will impact local colleges and universities, which will lose federal funding. Automatic federal spending cuts will begin soon and take millions from college financial aid programs nationwide, including West LA College.
President Obama released a detailed report showing how the sequester will affect each state. According to the report, California schools will lose about $87.6 million in federal funding, putting some 1,210 teachers and aides out of work. Financial aid would no longer be available for 9,600 low- income college students, some 3,690 work-study jobs would be eliminated and 8,200 children would be without early education, according to the White House. The budget cuts were part of a deal made between the White House and Congress in 2011 on raising the national debt limit. Democrats were in favor of voting to raise the debt ceiling, but Republicans wanted spending cuts in return. Sequestration will end in 2021 and is projected to lower the deficit by $1.2 trillion.
In the never-ending game of chicken, Republicans are threatening yet another budget showdown. They are adamant that whatever comes out of the ongoing sequester and deficit debates, all cuts must come from the spending side, including Medicare and Social Security.
So the questions is, will things be different this time around?