Long Beach, Calif., Educators Lobby for Tax Measure

Long Beach educators warned during a Tuesday morning press conference that K-12 schools and universities face more than $72 million in additional budget cuts unless voters support Proposition 30, the tax measure proposed by California Gov. Jerry Brown.

The cuts would mean teacher layoffs, loss of middle school sports, increased class sizes, and the elimination of university courses, according to a Long Beach Business Journal report.

The message was delivered by the heads of California State University, Long Beach, Long Beach City College, and the Long Beach Unified School District on the CSULB campus.

The three educational institutions boast a combined student enrollment of 142,000 students and are the city’s largest source of employment, providing 13,000 jobs.

The City College alone says it has eliminated more than 1,000 jobs since 2008 and more job losses are likely in 2013 unless Proposition 30 comes to the rescue, according to educators.

Brown has proposed raising taxes on personal income over $250,000 for seven years and increasing sales taxes for a four-year period to fund education.

The proposition could bring in anywhere from $6.8 to $9 billion in fiscal 2013 and $5.4 to $7.6 billion over the next five years.

The new tax revenues would not provide additional funding to Long Beach schools, but would prevent more cuts, the leaders said.

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