It’s a scary situation right now for school districts located in Orange County. The districts are planning next year to cut spending by $129 million as well as getting rid of 1,429 jobs, as the state of California is planning on cutting its budget by $2.3 billion.

These cuts could have been even worse, but luckily a bill passed last August that gave $96 million to Orange County districts.  That bill was able to save over 1,000 jobs in 2010 and part of 2011, although only for a year.

Says William Habermehl, county schools Superintendent, “School districts are in a dire situation right now.  They got a reprieve with this jobs bill, but it’s only a Band-Aid.  There is still a cloud hanging out there for everyone.”

According to California Governor, Jerry Brown, the funding for schools in the future would remain the same as this year, but only if a state tax increase that happened in 2009 was granted a five year extension by voters and remained for the next five years.

Unfortunately, cuts are not new to Orange County schools, as over the past three years, schools ended up cutting a total of $800 million already.  They have implemented furloughs for employees, reduced the number of days students attend school, cut programs, and increased class sizes.  Keeping as many programs as they can and working with what they have is what all of the teachers and staff at every one of these schools continues to do on a daily basis.