Gov. Gray Davis’ preliminary budget for 2002-2003 has indicated cuts in funding to The Preuss School, as well as to all UC outreach programs.
The funding cuts will greatly decrease the annual $1 million allocation that represents about 20 percent of the charter school’s funds, according to Ann Briggs Addo, spokesperson for the UCSD Resource Management Office.
“”It will be a significant cut to the school and potentially to other funding sources of the school,”” Addo said.
The Preuss School is a charter school at UCSD that admits low-income students who are historically underrepresented in the UC system.
With a $17 billion state deficit, K-12 and higher education are seeing deep cuts. These cuts are $451 million from higher education and $487 million from K-12 education. Both cuts will hurt The Preuss School because it receives funding from UC outreach allocations and from traditional school funding, such as the annual days of attendance and property taxes.
“”Everything has a context, and if you’re staring down the barrel at a $17 billion deficit, everybody is going to be hurt,”” Addo said.
The Preuss School’s stated mission since its inception has been to close the gap between underrepresented minorities and the majority in higher education, giving minority children access to an education that will better prepare them for the competitive nature of college.
“”We depend on this extra $1 million to do more than what other schools in the San Diego Unified School District do,”” Addo said.
This includes a longer school day and a longer school year than other schools in the district. If the cuts are not revised, the school day and school year will have to be reduced, and then “”we pretty much start looking like everybody else,”” Addo said.
Reducing the school’s classroom minutes, (the number of hours in the school day and the number of days in the school year) will yield the maximum savings should the cuts go through, but the administration hopes that these proposed cuts will be reversed in Gov. Davis’ revised budget expected within the next few weeks.
“”It’s still a question mark about whether this will happen or not,”” Addo said. “”We’re hopeful that it will be reversed in May.””
