California is one of the largest states in the country and has one of the largest state budgets, but in recent years its school system has become one of the worst in the nation to due to enormous budget cuts in an attempt to balance the state's enormous deficit. The economic crisis of the late 2000s resulted in even greater cuts to education. It is in environments like this that students from poor backgrounds become more vulnerable due to their lack of access to support in their homes and other programs outside of schools. Their school districts, already financially constrained, have no choice but to cut supplemental programs and increase class sizes, among other negative changes for public schools. The lack of financial support from the state and the state's requirement that schools meet certain testing parameters result in a system in which schools are no longer able to focus on students as individuals; they are forced to treat students as numbers rather than on a case-by-case basis. A Los Angeles Times article showed that a majority of Californians rate California schools “a grade of C or lower” and half think the quality of schools will continue to decline (Watanabe). While the economic recession affected the public school system in a negative way, it was not the only root of its problems. It simply exacerbated already existing problems. Due to widespread discontent with the public school system, many different solutions to reform the traditional public school system have been raised in the public debate. As early as the 1960s, the Washington Post reported that middle-class white parents were dissatisfied with the “mass production” approach to… paper…/www.edweek.org/ew/issues/programs -after school/>.Shapiro, Margaret. "The 'free schools' area is disappearing; the 'free schools' area is a victim of the times." Washington Post November 9, 1979, Metro section: B1. Print.Watanabe, Teresa. "USC DORNSIFE/TIMES POLL; Voters support tax increases for schools; Despite tough times, 64% in California say they would pay more to improve education." Los Angeles Times November 20, 2011, Top News Section: 1. Print.Wilson, Steven F. and Research American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy. Large-scale success in charter education. Perspectives on education. No. 3. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, 2009. ERIC. Network. 11 November 2011. Zimmer, R. and Buddin, R. (2009), Is California's Charter School Competition Improving the Performance of Traditional Public Schools?. Public Administration Review, 69: 831–845. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-6210.2009.02033.x