Mike Myslinski at 650-552-5324 or Sandra Jackson, 916-325-1550
BURLINGAME - New television and Web ads launched today by the California Teachers Association show the real damage being done to schools and students while state lawmakers haggle over how to resolve the state’s budget crisis. The new ads are part of a statewide campaign that launched with radio ads last week. Watch and listen to all of the ads at www.cta.org.
“Cuts to local public schools are not a threat — they’re a reality,” warns the narrator in the 30-second TV ad airing in all major markets. California’s future is at stake, it suggests. “Our kids have to learn, so they deserve a solution to the state budget crisis that protects our future.”
The ads remind the public that teacher layoffs year after year are hurting our schools, declaring, “A school without teachers is like breathing without oxygen.”
“Lawmakers are running out of time to finish approving the governor’s balanced budget of cuts and extending much-needed revenues. Lawmakers need to approve these tax extensions so our kids get the quality education they deserve,” said CTA President David A. Sanchez.
“While some lawmakers want to even deny allowing voters to decide in an election in June, our students and schools are suffering.”
Nearly 20,000 educators received pink slips this month. The TV and radio ads cite some of the layoff damage — with 4,500 pink slips in Los Angeles Unified, for example, and at least 2,550 in the Sacramento region, along with more than 1,000 in San Diego Unified. Schools in the greater Bay Area were hit with more than 3,100 teacher pink slips.
State cuts mean California State University campuses could turn away up to 10,000 students this fall. In the past three years, K-12 schools and higher education have been cut more than $20 billion, with at least 30,000 K-12 educators and 10,000 support staff losing their jobs.
Class sizes are soaring across the state. Students have lost music, art and vocational education classes —and more than 1 million students have shorter school years due to cuts.
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The 325,000-member CTA is affiliated with the 3.2 million-member National Education Association.