Administrators are overreacting to the state's budget shortfall, CTA Vice President Barbara E. Kerr told hundreds of Riverside County teachers at a recent rally. Because school districts don't know how much money they will have for next year, they are handing layoff notices to teachers and making plans to increase class size - often needlessly - just in case.
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Riverside County teachers listen somberly to speakers at their rally and then take to the streets with community members and students. |
"CTA is doing its best to send a message to both the governor and the Legislature," said Kerr at the rally held near the Riverside Unified School District administrative offices. "It's a message I know you'll want us to send. We are saying 'Take care of the kids.' We are asking them to keep cuts as far away from the classroom as possible."
CTA's budget priorities are: Don't cut funding for class size reduction, the base revenue limit (including funding for basic aid districts), the schools of greatest need or special education.
"It's nice to be home, but it's under sad conditions," said Kerr, a longtime kindergarten teacher in Riverside who will become CTA president in June. "I look out and see young faces. I also see experienced faces. Those of you who are young - you are the future of education and the best and the brightest. Those of you who have been here a long time are also the best and the brightest."
Some of those with younger faces say they fear they will be out of a teaching job next year.
"I'm definitely worried," said Aaron Guzman, a first-year music teacher who belongs to the Riverside City Teachers Association (RCTA). "I'm worried about my job, but I'm more worried about the kids. If they cut all this money, what level of education can we provide for our kids? I'm worried about how this will impact my students - and the impact it will have on the future of education in California."
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Students and community members join Riverside County teachers in the streets. |
"I pretty much know my job won't be here next year," said Marnie Richardson, a first-grade teacher in her second year. "I teach at a Title I school and I'm sad to think that these schools will be going backward instead of forward."
Danielle Gray, a second-grade teacher, said she was recruited by the Riverside Unified School District from the state of Washington to help fill the teaching shortage. Eager to make a difference, she relocated to California this year.
"I think the priorities are out of whack here in California," she said. "First they recruit you because there's a teaching shortage and then they say they don't need you anymore. What kind of a message does that send to the children?"
Those attending the rally said they fear the consequences of increasing class size as a way to help balance the budget. "I have 34 kids in my class, and now they want 35," said RCTA member Sharon Chaidez, who teaches a fourth-fifth-grade combination class. "But if they want the average to be 35, that means some teachers will have 40. If we truly value education, we can't do this to children."
Concern over larger class sizes brought out parents, too. Diane Medina came with her son, a student at Arlington High School. She said that her youngest daughter, a first-grader at Hawthorne Elementary, has been able to reap the benefits of a 20-to-1 student-teacher ratio, while her older children missed out. She says that a smaller class size has made a tremendous difference in student achievement.
"Now they might increase class size and I'm heartsick," she said. "They can't do this. They are taking the budget deficit out on kids and it's not fair."
Moreno Valley Teachers Association President Katherine Underwood said her district has many students from impoverished families, but is considering cutting counselors and English Language Development teachers who help students close the achievement gap.
"Those of us working as educators are being held hostage by our own state," she told rally participants. "This must stop, and it must stop now. We are calling upon the state to find a long-term plan to fix the budget without crippling education."
Sherry Posnick-Goodwin
