An AVID news release on June 28 this year announced to the public that the AVID College Readiness System would lose its state funding due to budget cuts in California.

“[The budget cuts] will impact the way California school districts fund their AVID program beginning in 2013,” the news release said. “The AVID program will continue in current schools without interruption for the 2012-2013 school year.”

The school district will have to decide whether or not to continue their funding for the AVID program. According to Principal Wynne Satterwhite, the budget decisions in November will determine whether or not the school district has enough funds for AVID.

“Our district has always been very supportive of AVID,” AVID coordinator Joanne Miyahara said. “They will continue to do that. The biggest problem is that…there is no real measure of how good is or how rigorous [the AVID program] is.”

The state funding ensured that schools across the state would hold their AVID programs to a certain standard. The University of California schools understood this standard when looking at the applications of AVID students. Without the state’s standards, the program’s integrity is unclear for college admissions, thus creating a problem when deciding whether AVID is a noteworthy program.

“We are not sure if the students will necessarily get the credit for what they are doing,” Miyahara said.

It is possible that the status of the program will change in the eyes of both colleges and program participants. For this year, the AVID program will remain the same, however in November, the district will have to decide whether or not to continue to fund AVID.