Shandon FFA travels to state capital for Ag Day
Shandon FFA at the California State Capitol in Sacramento this week for Ag Day.
By Jon Fuller
Shandon FFA Advisor
The Shandon Future Farmers of America (FFA) traveled this week to Sacramento for the California Ag Day at the state Capitol. On Wednesday, March 19, five FFA members and two agriculture teachers, joined thousands of FFA members to attend the “Ag Day.”. Students had the opportunity to hear from the Secretary of Agriculture on the Capitol steps, in addition to meeting with their local legislators to discuss their concerns about the proposed cut to the Agriculture Incentive Grant in the 2014-2015 proposed California budget.
Students also heard comments from Governor Jerry Brown, who spoke briefly about Agriculture issues that the State of California will be facing in the near future. The governor did not address looming cuts to Agriculture Education programs, but undoubtedly felt the impact of a large crowd chanting “Save FFA”.
Governor Jerry Brown speaks to the crowds at Ag Day. The students shout “Save FFA.”
The proposal to eliminate the Agricultural Education Incentive Grant threatens a nationally-recognized delivery model in Agricultural Education that has over 1330 courses approved for admission recognition by the UC and CSU systems, and which provides essential Agricultural Education and leadership training experiences for students interested in careers in Agriculture – a vitally important component of California’s economy. It will virtually eliminate the capacity of the agriculture programs to carry on activities involving the Future Farmers of America student organization, which currently has over 74,000 members in over 300 local chapters throughout California.
The proposed plan is to remove targeted incentive funding (totaling just over $4.1 million per year) from high schools currently offering Agricultural Education programs and redistribute those funds across the board to all schools in California with total discretion for use at the local level. Schools currently offering Agricultural Education programs would no longer receive those funds, which would be folded into the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF) base grant for distribution to all schools.
In San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara County, the estimated funds distributed to local high school with agriculture programs is $279,749 per year. The net impact of adding these monies to the LCFF base would amount to less than 66 cents per student per year. This will threaten California’s economic and agricultural future while producing virtually no benefit to existing educational funding streams.
The California FFA is home to nearly 78,000 students and over 300 FFA Chapters from the Imperial Valley to the Oregon border.
FFA students gather at the state Capitol for Ag Day.
