Many parents in Merced County, especially those in rural areas, could soon have to start driving their children to school, as state budget cuts eliminate significant funding for K-12 bus systems.
School districts will have to absorb cuts in other areas as well, such asper pupil funding, also called a school's revenue limit, child development and preschool programs.
"We are hit really hard, because transportation funding to our county is very important because of our rural districts," said Misty Key, assistant superintendent of business services for the Merced County Office of Education.
On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown initiated $2.1 billion in long feared "trigger cuts" after the state's revenue came in below its projections.
As part of the cuts, the state slashed $248 million from K-12 home-to-school transportation. In addition, $79.6 million in cuts will be made to the state's schools revenue limit and $23 million in child development and preschool programs.
Effective Jan. 1
The cuts in transportation, child development and preschool programs will go into effect Jan. 1, said Paul Hefner, communications director for the California Department of Education. Cuts to the revenue limit will go into effect Feb. 1.
"It will have a very big impact," he said of the transportation cut. "Unfortunately, many, many children rely on school buses to get to school safely."
The cuts to transportation will disproportionately affect students in rural areas, disabled students and low-income students, all of whom are more likely to need a bus to get to school, Hefner added. "They will be the hardest hit by the cuts to the school transportation system."
According to various education coalition groups, up to 1 million California students use school transportation, Hefner said. There are about 6 million K-12 students in the state.
The trigger cuts cost the school districts in Merced County and the Merced County Office of Education about $5 million, Key said. "The majority is in transportation," she said.
$600,000 loss
RoseMary Parga Duran, superintendent of the Merced City School District, said her district will lose about $619,994 in transportation funding mid-year. "For us that's the $600,000 I'm counting (on for) transportation that I won't have," she said. "That's just devastating to our program. We bus quite a few kids."
Duran sent a letter to Brown and other elected officials, including state Sen. Anthony Cannella, R-Merced, and Assemblywoman Cathleen Galgiani, D-Livingston, expressing her concerns about the transportation cuts and how they will affect students.
School districts have the option to make the transportation cuts in another area, Hefner said.
Layoffs in the transportation program will be hard to make since schools usually enter annual contracts.
"It's very difficult to cut in the middle of the school year," he said. "Those are the kind of terrible choices that schools are facing now."
Key said the cuts will affect all students in the county. For example, the Office of Education's child development and preschool programs, which serve about 645 families and 1,450 children, will have to absorb $125,000 in cuts.
"It's very sad for students in our county," she said.
Hefner said officials hope state legislators make education a priority, as school districts have been forced to make more and more cuts. In four years, education in the state has had to cut about $18 billion.
Officials hope that funding could be restored. "That's where the future of our state lies," Hefner said of the effect on students.
They would like to see new revenues come into the system, Hefner said.
But the state's financial problems don't look too promising.
Reporter Yesenia Amaro can be reached at (209) 385-2482, or yamaro@mercedsunstar.com.
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