“So the L.A. teachers went out on strike for an hour,” said Cal.

“To convince the governor and legislature not to cut the school budget,” said Marie. “How can they cut schools?”

“The governor’s getting a bad rap,” Grady said. “He’s not cutting school funding, he’s increasing school funding.”

“How can you say that? I saw the picket lines,” said Marie.

“Picket lines are PR. Smoke and mirrors. Not facts. They’re trying to control public thinking. If they say CUT enough times, the public will believe.”

“What facts?” Marie asked.

Cal said, “Its right here.” He waved the newspaper in front of Marie. “The L.A. schools expected over $500 million more from the state this year than last year. That was based on revenue projections. The governor’s offering only $193 million more than last year, so they say they are being cut $353 million.”

“Based on projections,” Grady emphasized, “not hard dollars.”

Cal took out his cell phone and clicked through to the calculator. “Here’s another way of looking at it. The $353 million is less than 2% of last year’s LAUSD budget of $19.5 billion.”

“Did you say billion?” asked Marie.

“Yes,” said Cal. “The LAUSD budget is about one-fifth the size of the entire state general fund. Anyway, with what the governor’s offering that still is an increase of last year’s budget of almost 1% and that doesn’t include property tax increases.”

“How do you have a budget cut when you have an actual increase in dollars?” Grady asked. “Government math.”

“Well, I’m sure they can use that money they were hoping to get,” Marie said as she studied the numbers. “It’s for the kids, that’s what their picket signs say.”

“I guess,” said Grady. “Although there have been fewer and fewer students in LAUSD for the past five years. But, whether its for the kids or not is an interesting question. What is it, 80% of the budget is personnel costs? I think we know who this is for.”

“Paying for good teachers helps the kids. Can’t they get the money somewhere else?” asked Marie.

“They can raise taxes,” said Cal.

“But that means raising taxes on people who are suffering in this economy,” protested Grady. “People who lost their jobs or are paying more money for gas and food.”

“I’m getting a salary cut,” Cal admitted.

“What happened? “ asked Marie.

“The boss said it was the economy. At least, I didn’t get laid off, but he had to cut back on salaries so he could keep everybody on.”

“Too bad you didn’t get an increase,” Grady said. “Then you could go out and picket the company.”