California schools on the brink

Original article on Salon.com by Andrew Gumbel

California’s public education system, once the finest in the nation, is on the edge of the abyss.

If the state’s voters don’t approve a package of emergency tax increases at the ballot box in November, the system – already pushed to the brink by decades of budgets cuts, swelling class sizes, skyrocketing inner-city dropout rates, shrinking libraries and disappearing arts and music programs – will start to shut down altogether.

That’s the dire scenario laid out by John Deasy, superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the largest in the state, who says he won’t be able to afford to keep his schools open beyond April unless voters approve a new injection of cash.

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