Posted on 03/16/2012 6:09:21 PM PDT by DeaconBenjamin
More than 20,000 public school teachers in California opened their mailboxes over the last few days to find a pink slip inside as districts dispensed the dreaded news to the educators that they may not have a job in the fall.
The layoff notices are preliminary, the districts' best guess at their funding after the Legislature concludes its annual budget fight this summer. But a proposed tax measure on the November ballot offers more uncertainty.
Voters could approve a tax increase that would prevent a $4.8 billion trigger cut to education funding, as proposed in the governor's budget.
That cut would be about $807 per student, the equivalent of 55,000 teacher layoffs or 17 days of school, according to The Education Coalitions.
The layoff notices were sent to teachers, librarians and others in schools all over California. Not many districts found a way to skirt the deadline.
San Francisco sent out 500 layoff notices.
In Los Angeles, 11,000 were sent.
About 700 were mailed in Sacramento.
Every school librarian in Union City got one, along with 100 teachers, administrators and other school staff.
Oakland Unified administrators found a way to balance its budget through attrition, elimination of adult education, across-the-board cuts at school sites, school mergers and closures, as well as other program cuts.
Disgruntled public
As the pink slip deadline approached, the mood in dozens of districts across the state reflected a growing public impatience with budget cuts to education. Parents protested, teachers rallied, and three students in San Leandro held a weeklong hunger strike to draw attention to the cost to classrooms.
In years past, many of the layoff notices issued by the March 15 deadline have been rescinded because of concessions from labor unions, changes to the state's revenue outlook or successful parcel tax measures.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Usually, but there is only so much the taxpayer can take. The state may be bluffing, but eventually the taxpayer will call that bluff.
This is done for two reasons:
1) It allows the State legislature to panic the citizens saying that if they don’t raise taxes, thousands of teachers will be laid off.
2) It helps the CTA in negotiations by allowing them to panic the local parents into forcing the school boards to agree to anything the CTA wants.
You forgot threatening to lay off police and firemen, close all state parks and cancel road repair/construction projects in heavily-traveled areas. Same old carrot-and-stick politics that always seems to work.
All the sane people have moved out it seems
Well since they know their contracts won’t be renewed they’ll just sit on their butts as you say.
It is time that the teacher unions along with SEIU go on strike until the cities resind the letters and give them a 10% pay raise as an apology. Let the cities lay off the garbage men, road repair folks, and the meter readers instead.
It is time that the teacher unions along with SEIU go on strike until the cities resind the letters and give them a 10% pay raise as an apology. Let the cities lay off the garbage men, road repair folks, and the meter readers instead.
they had 20% less tax revenue last quarte in CA, Do they get the over regs gave sent businesses packing?
Winner !! You are correct. And furthermore, this happens EVERY YEAR. The school districts are required by law to post these advance notices. And then the following school year. Almost EVERY teacher is hired back. This is standard operating procedure as usual for California. Same 'ol, same 'ol. And after this proposed tax increases fail at the ballot box this year , a FEW teachers will be laid off, while class sizes stay about the same, because so many students are leaving California with their out of work, overtaxed parents. And so many more will become home schooled.
They paid for brand new entitlement program- the Dream Act ,with their jobs!
I’ll eat my shorts if ANY of these “teachers” actually lose their jobs.
Another summer of threats before the stupid taxpayers get ripped off again. Insanity .... doing the same thing again and again but expecting different results!
“Parents protested...”
Irresponsible parents don’t want their favorite middle-class welfare program cut. Too bad, though, that they aren’t laying off 200,000 or 300,000 “educators” to send the unions a message.
64 teachers were laid off in 2010. They give out massive notices in March, again in May, and then actually layoffs are miniscule.
Did they say anything about support staff? Administrators, counselors, IT staff, middle management?
Of course not. For that would not resonate with taxpayers. Private industry, i.e. rational people do not do this. Look at the last layoff at say Blizzard Entertainment in Irvine. The announce 600 layoffs, but almost none of them are game developers.
These clowns could lay of 20,000 and few of them have be teachers. They could outsource janitorial and maintenance for example.
Clearly the only way for California to stave off bankruptcy is to plead ‘too big to fail’ to the Federal Reserve and persuade the central bank to buy California bonds. Those flat-earthers in the House will make a stink about the administration sending Obamabucks to Sacramento but the Fed can just slip it onto the balance sheet. Just leave enough for Illinois and New York.
Did anyone notice that in Wisconsin no one is laid off? How did that happen? Do you think that Gov. Walker has a great plan??
pink every teacher and close all public schools!!!
They are nothing but communist endoctrination centers!!
Choosing which teachers to lay off was easy. They just picked the ones who can’t speak Spanish.
What do you call 20,000 laid-off teachers?
A start.
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