By Mike Myslinski
In 2003, when California faced a staggering budget deficit that was only closed with the passage of state bonds, school districts issued more than 20,000 teacher layoff notices that spring in a premature rush to cope with the looming cutbacks.
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| From left, Alum Rock Educators Association members Maria Martinez, Sandra Rivera, Tomasita Alvarado, Amanda Kirkpatrick and Teresa Walden were among those protesting the district’s decision to retract its salary proposal when news of proposed budget cuts came out. |
CTA members and attorneys mobilized to reduce the actual layoffs to about 3,000, but much damage had already been done as thousands of educators found other jobs. Some districts are still recovering from those cuts.
While it’s not certain how much chaos will be caused this spring, the governor’s proposed $4.8 billion cuts in education funding to help close the state’s $14.5 billion budget hole are producing mass confusion. Hundreds of teachers are being threatened with layoff, and efforts to reach collective bargaining agreements are being put on hold by school districts.
CTA is mobilizing again.
The union’s State Council of Education, its top governing body of nearly 800 teacher delegates, unanimously condemned the governor’s cuts in a strongly worded resolution Jan. 26. The resolution calls on the governor and the legislators “to put our students first, reject across-the-board cuts that would damage our public schools, [and] protect the voter-approved minimum school funding law, Proposition 98.”
Whether he is working with the statewide Education Coalition or answering media calls about the crisis, CTA President David A. Sanchez says, “CTA is fighting the proposed budget cuts, but any reductions that are made must be made as far from students as possible.
“Our schools are making progress, but cuts of this magnitude would derail their progress and threaten their academic future. We cannot continue to expect our students to do more with less.”
The date of March 15 looms large. That’s the legal deadline for school districts to issue preliminary layoff notices. Feb. 15 was the deadline for the Legislature to act on the governor’s recommendation of making $400 million in education cuts midyear. The remaining $4.4 billion in proposed cuts would come in the next state budget covering the new fiscal year that starts July 1.
Around the state, CTA chapters were reporting at press time in early February that the governor’s cuts — which had not been voted on or finalized yet — were already causing school districts to panic.
In Rialto (San Bernardino County), the school board voted Feb. 13 to issue layoff notices to nearly a third of its teachers — up to 430 educators. Bill Hedrick, president of the 1,450-member Rialto Education Association, calls the move a “gross overreaction” to the proposed cuts.
“They want maximum flexibility and say that’s why they are issuing this many layoff notices,” says Hedrick. “I think it’s tremendously premature. It will destroy what morale we have left. It sends hundreds of employees scrambling for jobs elsewhere.”
In Chula Vista (San Diego County), school officials are looking at cutting $11 million from the state’s largest K-6 school district, which serves 26,000 students. Officials are talking about laying off an unspecified number of teachers by March 15, the statutory deadline, says Peg Myers, president of Chula Vista Educators.
“They can talk about it, but the last I heard, they weren’t talking about laying off students,” says Myers. “Who’s going to teach the students?”
Increasing K-3 class size is another possibility, she says, but the district’s large reserves should make it think twice about overreacting to the governor’s cuts. “They keep talking about the reserves being for a rainy day. Well, here’s the rainy day.”
Despite sitting on about $50 million in reserves, the Riverside Unified School District school board (Riverside County) has tabled indefinitely a vote on a tentative agreement that provides a 6 percent salary hike for educators. The Riverside City Teachers Association (RCTA) had already ratified the deal, but the district now claims it is facing the loss of more than $35 million in state funds this school year and next.
“Riverside teachers are angry,” says RCTA President Mark Lawrence. “We feel the tentative agreement was bargained in good faith. The district can afford this agreement. The governor’s cuts are just proposals at this time and nothing is even firm yet.”
In the San Francisco Bay Area, teachers are also seeing salary proposals evaporate.
The members of the San Ramon Valley Education Association had ratified a 3.3 percent raise for this school year, but the school district won’t honor the deal, blaming the state budget crisis.
“We are shocked and very disappointed,” says SRVEA President Mary Jane Keogh. “This is a high-cost area, and we are depending on the raise to recruit and retain our teachers.”
In San Jose, Alum Rock Educators Association President Leticia Gutierrez says members were startled when the district suddenly retracted a modest 2.5 percent raise proposal it had put on the bargaining table — setting off a round of protest rallies and leafleting by educators.
“We were more than stunned,” she says. “It’s another form of harassment and disrespect from this district.”
With special education cuts amounting to $360 million statewide, the Alameda Unified School District anticipates it will lose $285,000 in special ed funding. Alameda is facing about $4 million in cuts at a time when it ranks last among all 17 districts in Alameda County in per-pupil funding.
The district’s rash decision to issue pink slips to all 630 of its educators in 2003 prompted a New York Times article. This time the district is considering laying off 135 temporary and probationary teachers, says Alameda Education Association President Patricia Sanders. “This is a perfect storm situation for us. We are already cut to the bone.”
The 46,000-student Sacramento City Unified School District will probably lay off about 200 educators, says Linda Tuttle, president of the 3,000-member Sacramento City Teachers Association.
“We know the state budget is in a mess, but don’t take it out on teachers,” says Tuttle. “When you take it out on teachers, you hurt students.
“These kinds of cuts will hurt our children, no doubt about it.”
