“Year of Education” or “evisceration” in California?

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has dealt a blow to educators, proposing $4.8 billion in cuts to California’s public schools and possibly restarting a fight that he hoped had ended with the state’s largest teachers union. Education advocates vowed to fight the cuts, which Schwarzenegger would accomplish by suspending the holy grail of California’s education system: Proposition 98, the landmark school funding guarantee voters approved in 1988.

“This is going to be one of the most painful, vocal, public, fierce debates about education funding that we have ever seen,” said Brian Lewis, executive director of the California Association of School Business Officials. “We are going to come out of the woodwork opposing any suspension of 98 and any further undermining of this minimal guarantee to kids.”

Having to wield a budget ax over schools is a cruel irony for a governor who just months ago promised he would dedicate 2008 to wide-ranging education reforms in his “Year of Education.” Read more at SFGate.com.