It is bad-news-bears for the state of California as far as money is concerned. Well, that's not news.. it's been that way for a while. Somehow one of the richest states has one of the largest debts. Blame it on the Governator--but chances are it was this way long before he ever got here. (He just hasn't done the best job getting us out of it.) While I won't proclaim to know a lot about government spending or tax reformation or progressive taxes or anything.. what I do know is what it all does to the bottom line of our schools.
In short, we're looking at making $113 million in cuts over the next two years. Where will these cuts be made? To anything and everything. It's going to get real ugly. The obvious place for cuts is teacher layoffs. Then there are things like.. cutting positions at the district office, unpaid furlough days, cutting funding to special programs, cutting summer school, freezing teacher salaries, and taking the caps off class sizes.
You might think, well all that stuff's not so bad as long as you get to keep your job, Ms. Chew. Not really. All these things effect the classroom and effect the students. Take class size caps. It won't make much of a difference for my classes, I've had as many as 41 students in one class before. But where it will make a difference is in elementary school. Where they learn how to read and do basic math. Think about it.. if a student doesn't properly learn how to read or add and subtract in elementary school, who's going to make up for that? Especially if they grow up to go to middle schools and high schools that are overcrowded as well.. we're preparing our kids for a lifetime of remedial education.
Let me not belittle how horrible teacher layoffs really are. Or, more precisely, how horrible the process for teacher layoffs in the face of budget cuts are. It's one thing to get the axe because you're a horrible teacher. It's another to get fired because you simply don't have the seniority to save your ass in times of budget crises. Teachers who are on the brink of retirement and could care less about their students' education cost the district the most but will always, always keep their jobs over less experienced, but more bright-eyed and bushy-tailed newbie teachers. (This is not to say all teachers who've been in the schools for long don't care about their students. Or that all new teachers are a gift from God. I'm generalizing.) That's just disheartening. To know that how good a teacher you are has no bearing on whether or not you keep your job.
My coworkers keep telling me that I should be ok for this round, I'm a math/science teacher and they always need those somewhere. Needless to say, none of this is sitting well with me. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I think about the next year. Bleghhh.
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