The hundreds of cheerful Los Alamitos Elementary School pupils playing dodge ball and four-square on the school's vast playground on a recent day presented a sharp contrast with the worries their teachers and parents face. Though their school is in one of the nation's richest areas, it has such a bare-bones budget that it cannot afford such basic supplies as paper. Dozens of administrators, teachers, librarians, and clerical workers have been laid off, and the raises of those who remain are not keeping up with the cost of living. With the district closing three elementary schools this summer because of declining enrollment, scores of district employees worry their jobs will not exist come fall. Thus, the author states that the enormous deficits which have ravaged the California state budget in recent years are having a sobering trickle-down effect here, just as they are in schools across the Golden State.