There IS a Better Way to Fund California Education

There is a better way to fund education and other vital services. It’s time to restore the top income tax brackets, close loopholes like the yacht owners’ tax break, and join the other twenty oil-producing states in imposing a severance tax on the giant oil corporations. Restoring the top income tax brackets makes good fiscal sense. That’s where the money is hiding. The top one per cent of the economic pyramid—people who make $300,000 per year and more—own more than one third of the wealth.

They can well afford to pay more than they are currently paying in order to educate California’s students and maintain the health care of our residents. Many wealthy individuals have expressed a willingness to help. Billionaire Warren Buffet, for instance, has been quoted forthrightly proclaiming that he is taxed too little for the amount of money he makes. Bill Gates Sr., co-founder of the group “Responsible Wealth,” has argued for the preservation of the estate tax. It is politicians that have lacked the political courage to reasonably tax those that can best afford it.

Shifting the bulk of the cuts to health and human services is a disguised cut to education. These programs aren’t isolated from schools. Our students need to come to school ready to learn, and they can’t do that when they are hungry or sick. That is why the California Federation of Teachers is fighting for adequate funding for all vital services, not just education. In short, the governor is proposing to take from those who can least afford it and refusing to ask for anything from those whom can best afford it.
This is not the route to a better California.

School kids did not cause this crisis. Their teachers and school staff are being confronted with uncertain futures. This year I have seen teachers crying as they describe their feelings upon receiving layoff notices, and possibly losing the careers they worked so hard to prepare for. Even though many of these notices have been rescinded for the time being, the faith of these teachers in their future careers has been shaken. Many of these really great teachers, recognizing for the first time the instability of public education financing in California, won’t be coming back. This will be a lasting loss for our future generations of students.

The people of California rely on their schools and other vital public services. A progressive tax policy that asks the people who have benefited the most from living in California to pay their fair share is the only reasonable alternative to massive program cuts.

Marty Hittelman is the elected President of the California Federation of Teachers (CFT) which is a member of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). The CFT represents faculty and other school employees in public and private schools and colleges, from early childhood through higher education.