'Cuts Hurt' Bus Tour kickoff a major event
Volume 12, Issue 7 - April 2008
By Mike Myslinski and Frank Wells
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| The Angry Tired Teachers take a photo op |
When it comes to protesting the massive cuts threatening California’s public schools, the bus stops here — with the 340,000-member CTA leading the way.
Escalating its fight against the governor’s proposed $4.8 billion in cuts to schools and students, CTA launched a six-week, 10-city bus tour in Los Angeles on April 7 in a yellow school bus. The rolling billboard, with a “Cuts Hurt” banner across its side, immediately became a media magnet.
The kickoff of the tour to save California’s schools was covered by dozens of TV stations and newspaper and radio reporters who swarmed to cover the event and hear pink-slipped teachers in Inglewood and Rialto decry the cuts and the heavy toll they’ve had on teachers and students alike.
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| CTA President David A. Sanchez exits the Cuts Hurt bus |
“We have 14,000 teacher pink slips and 4,000 more for education support professionals and other school employees,” CTA President David A. Sanchez said of the need for the union to stop the damage now. “These vital employees may be gone next year, but the students who need them won’t be. That means even less individual attention for kids who need it most, and less supervision, meaning less safe schools and students.”
The tour was launched as part of an ongoing effort by CTA to impact lawmakers and draw more statewide attention to the devastating impact of the governor’s proposed cuts — the largest ever to threaten the 6.3 million students in California’s public schools. CTA is visiting hard-hit schools to remind the public that students’ education should not be sacrificed to resolve the state’s $16 billion budget deficit, and that California already ranks a dismal 46th in the nation in per-pupil funding.
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| (From left) Inglewood teachers Jamie Lynn Smith, Catherine Webb, and ITA President Aisha Blanchard-Young address the media |
The tour got under way at dawn on April 7 with a raucous musical sendoff by the Angry Tired Teachers Band, a group of Hayward High School teachers from the Bay Area. (The song “Cuts Hurt,” which was written for CTA, can be heard on www.cta.org.) The previous day, the band had performed a lively set at a news conference at State Council in Los Angeles during a pink slip protest rally.
Boarding the bus in downtown Los Angeles were President Sanchez, Vice President Dean E. Vogel, Secretary-Treasurer Daniel R. Vaughn, and Executive Director Carolyn Doggett. The school bus was decorated with a banner of a forlorn-looking young student and the “Cuts Hurt” slogan printed in huge letters across its side.
The first stop was a news conference at Monroe Middle School in Inglewood Unified, a school struggling under federal Program Improvement mandates of No Child Left Behind and facing major losses under the governor’s proposed cuts. Inglewood Unified had recently issued over 200 layoff notices, 17 of them to teachers at Monroe.
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| A long line of news cameras capture the event |
Sanchez told the crowd at the news conference that cuts alone were no solution to the state’s budget problem. “We can’t talk about spending cuts without talking about ways to increase and stabilize revenues,” he emphasized.
“Otherwise our students, their education and quite literally their future will continue to be subject to the roller coaster of the budget process.”
Vogel, a former counselor, talked about the loss of important support services personnel like counselors, librarians, school nurses and psychologists, and how those positions are often the first to go. He also spoke against the loss of so-called nonessential courses.
“Cutting or eliminating music, art, PE or vocational education will rob students of their opportunity for a well-rounded education,” said Vogel. “Killing those programs is killing the only opportunity many students have for education and a bridge to a viable future, and will lead to higher dropout rates.”
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| CTA President David A. Sanchez, CTA Vice President Dean Vogel and CTA Secretary-Treasurer Dan Vaughn visit a classroom at Monroe Middle School. |
Inglewood Teachers Association President Aisha Blanchard-Young spoke of the pain ITA members were going through, and then introduced two Monroe teachers who had received layoff notices.
Catherine Webb, an eighth-grade English teacher, and Jamie Lynn Smith, a recently hired sixth-grade instructor, both spoke of the devastating personal impact of their pink slips and of their concerns for students.
Webb holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees and wants to stay at Monroe. “It’s disheartening,” she said at the news conference, “to be told that my dedication to my job doesn’t matter, and to be told that my hard work doesn’t matter.”
Smith teaches English learners “who are struggling,” but making progress. “They have really come together, and we have really made our classroom more like a home than a classroom,” said Smith. “I really hope that the state pulls it together and that we put the children first.”
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| Rialto Education Association President Bill Hedrick urges governor to bring relief |
After a tour of Monroe to see how cuts would impact students and classrooms, the CTA officers boarded the bus again and headed 70 miles east to Simpson Elementary School in Rialto, a district where the local CTA association has been fighting a bitter battle over the 400 layoff notices issued there.
Upon arrival, the officers were greeted by a supportive crowd of leaders and others from surrounding CTA chapters in San Bernardino County.
Rialto Education Association President Bill Hedrick urged the governor and Legislature to help bring relief to the turmoil REA members and their students are going through. While calling the district’s response to the cuts “terrible,” he said that it was the responsibility of Sacramento to solve the larger school funding problem, and he called for a long-term and stable funding solution.
Vaughn pointed out that the governor’s proposed cuts were only making a bad situation even worse. “California already spends $1,900 less per student than the national average, and we have the greatest shortages of librarians, counselors and other critical support staff.”
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| Mike Shanteler, president of Redlands ESP Association, at the Rialto Cuts Hurt bus stop flanked by CTA officers Sanchez and Vogel. |
Vaughn reaffirmed the need to protect Proposition 98, the CTA-sponsored minimum school funding law passed by voters 20 years ago, as “the only thing between our students and a political system that too often treats them as collateral damage during budget discussions.” The governor’s proposed cuts would mean a suspension of Prop. 98.
Driving home the local impact of the budget cuts, pink-slipped Rialto teacher Sandra Arnold related how she had left another field to go back to school and become a teacher. After five years in the district, she described how crushing it was to have her “calling” suddenly taken from her.
“Not only has my world been turned upside down, but my students deserve better than this,” said Arnold. “At a recent open house I had a mother and daughter sobbing over all these cuts and layoff notices. This is just devastating for us all.”
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| Vaughn visits with students at Monroe Middle School in Inglewood |
In addition to Inglewood and Rialto, the bus made stops in Orange County, San Diego and Bakersfield; the tour was scheduled at press time to make stops in Redding and Chico, May 5; the San Francisco Bay Area, May 14; and Sacramento, May 20.
“This proposed budget would be a giant step backwards,” said President Sanchez at the Rialto bus stop. “We urge the governor and the Legislature to listen to all of our voices. Our students and teachers have been making real progress — let’s keep moving forward.”
