A shorter school year or more budget cuts?

Although the school year may become shorter, that would come with a price.

Due to another statewide financial deficit of $13 billion, the possibility of reducing the school year by a week has been considered.

Now, I’m not going to lie. I was ridiculously excited when I learned of a shortened school year. I personally feel like our school year is incredibly long; a lot of my friends who live in other states start school in the first week of September, yet their school year ends in late May or early June. With their ideal school length in mind, I was really looking forward to the future.

Yet, once I learned about the additional budget cuts, I had to quickly repeal my words.

Another blow to the California public university system is occurring through the $100 million in cuts to UCs and CSUs. Community colleges may also be facing $72 million in cuts, but the worst of them all hits home: a cut of up to $1.4 billion to all public K-12 schools.

The decision is left to California’s Department of Finance’s director, who will either accept or deny the proposal in December. Cuts are not exclusive to educational systems; funds to child care services and local libraries may also be cut.

Although college cuts don’t directly affect us now, they certainly will later. Tuition increases, fewer classes and other negative effects will impact public universities in the state. Getting financial aid is becoming more difficult every year, even though there are so many of us who can’t completely afford the full four years of schooling.

We hear about budget cuts being made every day and everywhere. The remaining classes and activities we have here at CVHS need to be saved from cuts. It’s not like our school year would even shorten that much anyway (a maximum of a week), but if it still matters that much to you, then I suggest you look at the classes here that are unintentionally taken for granted and reconsider which option holds more value to you.