California state colleges are struggling under budget cuts too, as this photo taken March 4 at state university's campus protest shows. Photo: anitakhart (Flickr)

Across the United States, schools are in danger, but the situation in financially pinched California has put public schools in a state of emergency. A recent article for The Los Angeles Times revealed the extent of the problem.

Fourteen of the state's 1131 school districts are facing bankruptcy, according to the LA Times. Another 160 districts are listed as at risk of a similar fate in the very near future, which means teacher layoffs and big cuts in educational programs.

About 15,000 public school teachers were laid off last year, says the L.A. Times. And it's possible that another 26,000 will be laid off in the near future. In a state with one of the highest student-to-teacher ratios, the situation is about to get much worse. Students face even larger classes, fewer programs and a shorter school year without any guarantee that the cuts will stop there.

These cuts are likely to be particularly disastrous for students who's first language is something other than English, which is about 5.8 percent according to the 2000 Census — that's nearly twice the national average.

Because of the types of programs getting cut, at-risk students will feel the cuts the most. The budget cuts are taking away many of the programs intended to help these students through school and into college, giving them even less incentive to continue with their education. According to a 2009 United Way study, three in ten California households cannot cover living expenses prompting these kids to rush through school or drop out early to find work. And very few of them make it through college.

Schools are one of many problems the state faces as the Governor's office tries to fix the budget shortfall by slashing budgets for parks, prisons and health care, among others. Because of these budget woes, it loos like there's no quick fix in sight for California's public schools.

Photo: BBC World Service (flickr)

Recently, decades of climate change warnings seem to have gained traction in political circles. Long-overdue conversation about the environment is finally underway; but is political will enough to enact environmental legislation in the face of a full-fledged economic crisis?

California is seen as one of the U.S.’s environmental leaders, having been one of the first states to pass a cap-and-trade model requiring businesses to cut carbon dioxide emissions to a certain level or pay fees if they generate more than the limit. But resistance to these efforts has increased as the economy declines, with some of California’s businesses and manufacturers saying that they are unable to afford the costs of the new legislation. According to state budget analysts, the up-front costs of this legislation are more than $30 billion, which outpace any initial savings generated from the law. These same state officials claim that, by 2020, a yearly savings of $40 billion will more than make up for this initial cost. Other analysts have openly derided these figures, however, calling them “unrealistic,” and maintaining that costs will be far higher than the forecasted estimates.

The U.S. isn’t the only country that is wrestling with this problem. Low-income countries are also wondering if their environmental efforts will be cut short due to global economic woes. In Bangladesh, a country vulnerable to global warming-induced natural disasters, the government is developing an ambitious plan to protect the country from rising sea levels, cyclones, and droughts. Estimated costs for this plan are $5 billion for the first five years, with a good chunk of the funding coming from international donors. Now, faced with economic uncertainty in their own countries, it’s not clear that donors will come through with funds to support these efforts.

Stopping or undoing environmental damage is an expensive prospect, with large upfront costs and no definitive reassurance that initial investments will pay off quickly. With daily reminders of the global economic slowdown, nearly every country is exercising more caution in choosing their investments. As a result, it’s uncertain whether local, national and international communities will be able to keep in mind that the long-term benefits of prompt environmental action surely outweigh the short-term costs. With scientists issuing dire warnings about global warming-related “floods, drought, disease and extreme weather,” ignoring these predictions is too risky a gamble to make.

Assembly line in a California auto-manufacturing plant. Photo: Gregory Melle (flickr)

Just how deeply is the recession carving its way through the U.S. — and who's getting hit the hardest?

A New York Times interactive map measures December 2008 unemployment rates across the U.S., layering in the impact of the housing boom and the loss of manufacturing jobs. Dark patches of color, indicating higher unemployment rates, are especially noticeable along the West Coast, as well as in Michigan and in parts of the Deep South.

The national unemployment average reached 7.1 percent last December. Current figures put the jobless rate at 8.1 percent — the highest since 1983. Unemployment has crept as high as 22 percent in places like El Centro, California, an area weakened by dried-up crops and withered spending as fewer Mexicans cross the border to shop there.

This recession bears a different face than previous economic lapses, writes The New York Times’ David Leonhardt. He says the current downturn is hurting blue-collar workers more than college graduates, affecting men more than women and stinging homeowners more than renters. He adds that Latinos have become the ethnic group most vulnerable to job losses.

"The main reason that recessions tend to increase inequality is that lower-income workers are concentrated in boom-and-bust industries," Leonhardt writes, citing recent job landslides in the agriculture and construction sectors.

Leonhardt suggests that stocks, government policy and education are the three tools most crucial to lifting the U.S. from the economic depths the country hasn't seen since the Great Depression.