California Teachers Association
1705 Murchison Drive
P. O. Box 921
Burlingame, CA 94011-0921
www.cta.org
Contact: Mike Myslinski at 650-552-5324 or Becky Zoglman, 916-442-5895.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
BURLINGAME - Even with the state budget crisis, teacher layoffs should be a last resort and only considered after school districts have reduced their reserves and decreased spending on administrators, warns Wayne Johnson, president of the 335,000-member California Teachers Association.
"Laying off teachers will increase class sizes and not provide our students with the quality education they deserve," Johnson said. "School districts should be targeting budget cuts away from the classroom and those education professionals who work directly with students."
He said many school administrators are overreacting to Saturday's legal deadline to notify teachers that they could be laid off. Districts are deliberately inflating the number of educators targeted, creating unnecessary chaos. Many administrative cuts, especially at school district central offices, aren't deep enough, Johnson said.
"You haven't read many news stories about massive administrative layoffs. To spare administrators, some districts are slaughtering proven school reforms like class size reduction and are threatening to lay off far too many teachers," Johnson said. "With some districts even giving all of their teachers layoff notices at once, the process is being abused. Students will suffer."
To add insult to the emotional injuries caused by layoff notices, some districts are using the state budget crisis to try to gain an unfair advantage at local bargaining tables, Johnson said.
"Administrators are using the layoff notices to try and scare teachers into taking pay cuts or a reduction in health care benefits," he said.
Teacher layoff notices issued statewide total more than 10,000 to date, CTA estimates, and the final tally is expected to be much higher.
Some statewide examples of school district layoffs and program cuts:
- Alameda Unified School District: All 635 educators got layoff notices.
- Adelanto Elementary and Hesperia Unified Districts: All 284 Adelanto teachers were notified, and all 768 Hesperia educators (San Bernardino County).
- West Contra Costa Unified: 956 teachers - 48 percent of them - got notices, and potential cuts include all counselors, advanced placement classes, and 21 computer classes. Entire K-3 Class Size Reduction (CSR) program is targeted.
- Riverside Unified: 284 teachers and only 13 administrators got layoff notices. The teachers include 10-year district veterans.
- Chula Vista Elementary: 417 teachers, 10 administrators, and wants to kill off CSR program in all K-3 classes.
- San Juan Unified: This Sacramento County district notified 600 teachers (20 percent), including Margie Reeves at Skycrest Elementary, who has 10 years of teaching experience, national board certification, and is due to give birth on April 3.
- Fresno Unified: Wants to lay off 1,097 teachers, eliminate entire CSR program.
- San Diego Unified: 1,487 educators are targeted for layoffs, with many possible education program cuts, as well as cuts to class size reduction, under consideration.
CTA is providing legal support for any member who receives a layoff notice. Teachers who receive one of these "reduction in force" notices are entitled to a hearing before an administrative law judge where the district must prove that it had legal grounds for the layoff.
CTA is also part of a coalition fighting to preserve the state's Class Size Reduction program, which provides extra funding to districts for keeping 20-1 student-teacher ratios in kindergarten through third grades.
