Earlier this week the Los Angeles Times reported that a top school district official at the state’s largest school district is meeting with teachers who have broken ranks with their union to support pay cuts as a means to avoid layoffs.
Los Angeles faces budget cuts that amount to $700 million from their $6 billion general fund budget.
Thirty-two veteran Contreras teachers, whose jobs are safe, have signed a letter signaling their willingness to take unpaid days off rather than lose colleagues, whom the letter characterized as “our future generation of teachers and school staff.” The letter continued: “A number of tenured teachers at [Contreras] are willing to take two weeks or more in furlough days to save the jobs of so many of our great new teachers and staff.”
The leadership of United Teachers Los Angeles has vowed to oppose any layoffs of teachers, but has also opposed any decrease in pay, including furloughs.
How one could consider this a realistic approach is largely unexplained.
One furlough day for all district employees would save $15 million. Money from a federal economic stimulus plan will offset a substantial portion of the district’s deficit, but various factions are still debating over how and how much of this money can be used to save jobs.
Will the approach of teachers in LA Unified be the first domino to fall in a chain of events or an anomaly? At this point in time it is difficult to assess.
What we do know is that here in Davis we are facing much of the same difficulties on a much smaller scale.
Last week, as we reported, the school district discussed alternative funding options but seem to balk at the idea of accepting one-time monies raised by the Davis Schools Foundation as a means to avert teacher layoffs.
Boardmember Sheila Allen, her own job with the county threatened either with a pay cut or layoff, flatly said that we cannot take one-time money to prevent teacher layoffs. The only way to avoid staffing cuts is for the DTA and CSEA to accept pay cuts.
To this point, the DTA leadership seems unwilling to make that happen, although there does seem to be considerable debate and dissent within the ranks.
Threatened in these layoffs are younger teachers who lack the seniority.
As the Vanguard has mentioned all too many times already, across a range of industries public and private, workers have had to step up and take across the board cuts and furloughs in order to prevent layoffs. Some have taken as much as a ten percent cut.
Right now, the DTA may be looking at a quarter of that, at 2.5%.
The worst news is that state tax revenues continue to decline. Already they project an additional $8 billion shortfall even after the $40 billion budget deal.
Polls consistently show the ballot initiatives that were placed on the May ballot during the budget deal failing. That is an additional $6 billion in state money that would have to be made up down the line.
Thus the state may be facing a $14 billion deficit when it revises its budget in June this year. That could mean an additional $4 billion in education cuts. We can argue with the wisdom of this approach, but the fact of the matter is that come June, the district might be looking to cut another $3 million from its general fund. That means more layoffs and program cuts.
It is unfortunate, but right now, the only people that can save education are the teachers who work very hard and are not paid nearly enough to begin with. But the teachers can show us the way, and show us they must.
—David M. Greenwald reporting
divide and conquer
or push your colleagues off the boat
Obama, inaugural address:
“It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job, which sees us through our darkest hours.”
“It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job, which sees us through our darkest hours.”
Obama is all about “personal responsibility and sacrifice” so he doesn’t have to do any of the hard work – like actually instituting major reforms, so this mess doesn’t happen again. The only thing Obama knows how to do is throw money at problems (nationalizing banks is a form of throwing money at the problem) and hope they go away while he is still in office. Meanwhile Obama is enjoying his celebrity status as he shows up on Jay Leno. Good grief, now unprofessional! It is almost as if Hollywood has become the new venue for political speeches. Disgusting!
There is no choice but for teachers to take a pay cut. If they keep refusing to do so, the very teachers refusing to take a paycut are going to end up getting pink slips themselves. It is as simple as that. Yes, teachers are underpaid. Yes, teachers work long hours and work very hard. Many do a fantastic job at instructing our kids. None of that is particularly relevant at this point.
Bottom line – if massive numbers of teachers are laid off, that is massive numbers of folks who cannot pay their mortgages. Failure to pay mortgages will result in massive home foreclosures. A glut of foreclosed houses on the market that won’t sell will devalue all real estate. The devaluation of real estate will mean far less tax revenue coming in to pay for education and other services. Less tax revenue coming in means more layoffs. It is a vicious unending cycle, if massive layoffs are not averted. And the only way I can see to do that now is for teachers to take a paycut. If there were any other realistic way, teachers would have suggested it by now…
Interesting logic. Obama doesn’t do any hard work and hangs out with celebrities, therefore nothing he says is valid.
Glad you’re around to straighten us out.
Winters HS earns a California “Distinguished School” award:
[url]http://wintersexpress.com/news.html[/url]
Folsom-Cordova USD pink slips, El Dorado Union HSD (no pink slips!) and Rescue Union SD (Superintendent Carol Bly is former Deputy Superintendent of DJUSD):
[url]http://folsomtelegraph.com/detail/110263.html?content_source=&category_id=&search_filter=&user_id=&event_mode=&event_ts_from=&event_ts_to=&list_type=&order_by=&order_sort=&content_class=1&sub_type=&town_id=&page=#comments[/url]
Adult schools in California being hit hard:
[url]http://www.insidebayarea.com/education/ci_12109833[/url]
SF school district rescinds 405 pink slips after receiving $24.5 million from city’s rainy day fund:
[url]http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/04/03/BAV516RR26.DTL&hw=San+Francisco+schools+city+rainy+day&sn=004&sc=357[/url]
wdf – wow! How do you explain all the disparities?
“Interesting logic. Obama doesn’t do any hard work and hangs out with celebrities, therefore nothing he says is valid.
Glad you’re around to straighten us out.”
No, what I said was his solution to every problem is to throw money at it, and hope it goes away. That is typically what politicians do, and that sort of thinking is what got us into the mess we are in now!
“wdf – wow! How do you explain all the disparities?”
City of SF has surplus money (City of Davis doesn’t). Article refers to a Proposition G in SF as the reason for the surplus. Don’t know if that’s an additional tax/assessment or not.
El Dorado seems to have used very conservative budgeting, which has paid off for them in these times. Good for them.
I still find that most districts are more or less in the same situation as DJUSD, many worse off. There are a handful of other districts that have come off as well as El Dorado, but not many.
Sac Unified is discussing school closures:
[url]http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1775193.html[/url]
“wdf – wow! How do you explain all the disparities?”
An interesting exercise would be to see what the salary structure is for teachers/employees in these districts, like El Dorado Union and Natomas, vs. DJUSD.
Also, what services/programs they offer or don’t offer, what class sizes they run, etc.
Article says that no pay cuts happened. LA school board voted all the job cuts.
[url]http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=103119173[/url]
Dixon USD considering which elementary school to close. Vacaville USD still looking for an additional $3-4 million in cuts, already pink slipped 88 teachers.
[url]http://www.thereporter.com/news/ci_12154510[/url]
Why doesn’t Obama throw money at the failing states. How many hundreds of billions to the banks. FUs.dkdjfek the banks. If that money was given to the failing states we’d be in a better position. How messed up is it for us to give our money to the banks, so they can turn around and lend it to us AT INTEREST!!!! It’s the biggest scam of the century. Untill we can bring the cost of living down to a realistic number, then we’ll continue to live in a credit society where nobody can do anything without taking a loan a feeding interest to the giant mafia inspired hole we call the banking system. Forget Obama. He’s throwing money at the banks and will be cutting vital services to the poor in the name of balanancing the budget. How is that democratic?