School districts across California will lose millions of dollars if the automatic federal budget cuts known as sequestration take effect on Friday. The California Department of Education said statewide, schools could lose about $260 million.
Steve Ladd is Superintendent of Elk Grove Unified near Sacramento, the fifth largest school district in the state. He said Elk Grove would lose about one-and-a-half million in federal money next year and more than two million the following year.
“We’ll have to make adjustments, realize where we’re going to have to reduce services to students," Ladd said. "Adjust programs, make the necessary changes to have to live inside the means that we’re being forced to live inside, should sequestration take place.”
L.A. Unified, the state’s largest school district, could lose about $37 million. The largest cuts to California schools would be to special education programs, and title one, which is designed to help disadvantaged students. English learner programs and charter schools would also be affected.
