LOS ANGELES – Declaring that no more cuts should be made to our public schools, CTA President David A. Sanchez today led a protest with hundreds of educators who held up mock pink slips representing the 14,000 teachers and the more than 4,000 education support professionals and other educators who received layoff notices statewide. The educators then tore up the mock pink slips in disgust.
“We are here today to rip up these symbolic pink slips because the governor’s proposed state budget cuts and the damage they are causing are tearing the fabric of our schools and communities,” Sanchez said. “Teachers and their students are in turmoil over the thousands of layoff notices that have gone out due to the governor’s reckless proposal to slash $4.8 billion from our schools.”
Two of those 14,000 teacher pink slips went to Bernie and Lisa Harding of San Dimas. Flanked by their young daughters holding signs about saving their parents’ jobs, the couple spoke out at the CTA protest against the state budget chaos that threatens their positions in Covina Valley Unified School District in Los Angeles County. “My students and my profession deserve better respect than these mass layoff notices,” said Bernie Harding, a third-grade teacher. “It is outrageous that the governor’s actions are now threatening my students and my own family,” said Lisa Harding, a learning specialist who helps struggling students.
President Sanchez vowed that the 340,000-member CTA will not let the governor prevail in making what would be the largest cuts ever made in what is the largest public school system in the nation – especially at a time when California ranks 46th in the country in per-pupil spending. “The governor’s proposal to balance the state budget through cuts alone would be devastating to our students and the future of California,” Sanchez said during the protest at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel, where the 800-delegate CTA State Council of Education met this weekend. “Any approach to solve the budget crisis must include increased revenues.”
Sanchez announced that CTA will kick off on Monday a statewide “Cuts Hurt” bus tour to expose the impacts of the governor’s billions in proposed cuts. The six-week CTA bus tour of hard-hit schools will make at least these 10 stops: Inglewood, Rialto, April 7; Orange County, San Diego, April 17; Bakersfield, Fresno, April 23; Redding, Chico, May 5; San Francisco Bay Area, May 14; Sacramento, May 20.
Sanchez and the yellow “Cuts Hurt” school bus will stop for two news conferences at Southern California schools Monday, April 7, where pink-slipped teachers will be speaking out:
• 9:15 a.m., Monroe Middle School, 10711 South 10th Ave., Inglewood, 90303.
• 1 p.m., Simpson Elementary School, 1050 South Lilac Ave., Rialto, 92376.
Follow the bus tour at www.cta.org.