19,000 teachers receive layoff slips in California

[The Vegan Marxist]

Union: 19K teacher layoff slips so far in Calif
March 15, 2011

SAN BRUNO, Calif. — School districts in California have issued nearly 19,000 layoff notices so far to teachers amid uncertainty over the state budget, the California Teachers Association estimated Tuesday.

The union announced its estimate of preliminary notices on the day school districts must let employees know they could lose their jobs.

Some districts had yet to fully report how many warnings had been distributed as they prepare for worst-case budget scenarios. The union said it expects to have a final count Friday.

Its early estimate includes almost 500 school employees in San Francisco, 540 in Oakland, nearly 900 in San Diego, and about 5,000 educators in Los Angeles.

The situation is not unique to California. School districts throughout the country are warning of cutbacks involving teacher and other employees, as state legislatures seek to close massive budget shortfalls by cutting education spending.

Not all of the estimated layoffs will be carried out in California.

Schools have until May 15 to issue final layoff notices. Two years ago, districts handed out layoff notices to a record 26,500 teachers, but only 60 percent of them ended up losing their jobs.

Meanwhile, teachers and parents rallied around the state Tuesday to drum up support for Gov. Jerry Brown’s budget proposal.

Brown’s plan for closing the state’s nearly $27 billion budget deficit seeks to maintain current K-12 spending levels by asking voters to extend temporary increases in the sales, personal income and vehicle taxes for five years.

But so far the governor has not secured enough Republican support to hold a special tax election.

Without the tax extensions, school districts would face another round of deep budget cuts that education officials warn would prompt widespread layoffs and campus closures.

In Union City, between San Jose and Oakland, kindergarten teacher Quyen Tran was one of about 60 school employees in her small school district to get a layoff notice. She started teaching in New Haven Unified School District in 2006.

Quyen, 30, said she was laid off last spring but hired in August right before the school year began. She is expecting her first child in June.

“It’s very stressful,” she said during a news conference, “just not knowing where I’m going to be next year or how secure my income will be.”

Quyen, however, said she’s more worried about the impact of state budget cuts on her students.

“With all these layoffs of teachers, they will have no choice but to stuff more kids into these classrooms,” she said. “They’re going to be cheated out of their education just because there are not going to be enough teachers around.”

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42100001/ns/us_news-life/

[Amphictyonis]

A lot of good the unions did. I wonder how this will impact class size and the education of the kids effected (mostly in poor neighborhoods). Something tells me a major ground war might happen within the next few years to 'deal' with the stagnant population the capitalists are creating by making the working class pay for the crisis. Marx said capitalists will use war to recover from crisis of overproduction.

[RED DAVE]

A lot of good the unions did.Amen to that. Their role is Wisconsin started out well, but the union leaders, big surprise, got cold feet.


I wonder how this will impact class size and the education of the kids effected (mostly in poor neighborhoods).Very badly. I saw a great slogan: "A teacher's working conditions are a child's learning conditions."


Something tells me a major ground war might happen within the next few years to 'deal' with the stagnant population the capitalists are creating by making the working class pay for the crisis. Marx said capitalists will use war to recover from crisis of overproduction.This, with all due respect Comrade, is crazy. What workers, unionized and nonunionized, need to do is organize. To fantasize about "a major ground war" in the US is off the wall.

RED DAVE

[Triple A]

Cutting on education? Seriously?

With so many places to cut they cut in the most imporant place of all, education.
People need an education to be able to question the world arround us and even tough capitalists want to make the population dumber and therefore easier to control we have to fight back on this one.


My final toughts are: If you work on Wall Street and trough scams you get rich you get a tax cut, if you are a poor /middle class citizen paying for the crisis you get a stab in the back given by the governors you elected.


PS: Did you know a single airplane of the US army can cost up to 1.1 billion $?
Did you know that the most used missiles cost $575000 (tomahawk) and $600000 (cruise missile) per unit?
Do you know that the stinger missiles US has cost up to $7,281,000,000?

YEA CUT ON EDUCATION:mad:

[Lodestar]

As Marxists, we ought to see this struggle, which so clearly delineate proletarians from bourgeoisie (at least more so than many) as one of the best opportunities for recruitment. What better example of class struggle than the current austerity measures that drastically affect most Americans already struggling financially, and the tax breaks, subsidies, and bailouts the wealthiest among the criminal class have received.

The state is on the side of the ruling classes. It's the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie. For anyone to remain a vapid liberal pacifist in times like these, they'd have to be almost comatose!

[southernmissfan]

In my city, all "temp" workers within the education system have already been laid off. This includes custodians, cafeteria workers and paraprofessional assistants. At the end of the year, all non-tenured employees will be laid off. This of course is a way to disrupt the tenure cycle. Let's say you need 3 years to gain tenure. Well they can just lay you off and then rehire you year after year, meaning new contracts, meaning no tenure. Education in my state is under fierce attack. The latest move by the legislature is to prevent teachers from having payroll deduction for union dues.

I'll graduate with my teaching degree in December, so yeah, I'm pretty much screwed. People don't realize how bad things are in the schools until you go in them and see what's happening. The American public education system is being attacked and dismantled from every point possible, whether it's class sizes, teacher benefits or academics. Solidarity to all fellow educators. And to fellow workers and students, we need your help.

[Burn A Flag]

Amen to that. Their role is Wisconsin started out well, but the union leaders, big surprise, got cold feet.

Very badly. I saw a great slogan: "A teacher's working conditions are a child's learning conditions."

This, with all due respect Comrade, is crazy. What workers, unionized and nonunionized, need to do is organize. To fantasize about "a major ground war" in the US is off the wall.

RED DAVE

I don't believe he actually said the ground war would be in the USA. It would not be too suprising if there was a major ground war in another country to cover the massive unemployment/recession. I dunno if it will happen and it probably won't, but it would not be too shocking.

[Amphictyonis]

This, with all due respect Comrade, is crazy. What workers, unionized and nonunionized, need to do is organize. To fantasize about "a major ground war" in the US is off the wall.

RED DAVE

I'm not fantasizing about a major ground war in the US I'm saying a major ground war may break out somewhere. I'm not hoping for it to happen by any means. Capitalists, it looks like, are going after resources in the middle east. I think it wouldn't be off the wall to assume Afghanistan and Iraq were only the beginning. I don't support or wish for any major or minor war....just saying it will probably happen (unfortunately). My guess would be Iran.

[Rusty Shackleford]

fucking FUCK the democrats. especially brown.

rage.


this needs to be jerry's theme song.
UW8UlY8eXCk

[jbaez]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that one of the first things to have funds pulled from during any state budget deficit is the educational system. Why is that? Knowledge is the enemy (to the ruling class, at least). I personally know teachers and others in the educational field who bust their asses every day, at the workplace and in their personal time, working with and for children who otherwise have not much hope at home, or in their communities outside of school. Yet, some teachers, especially those just starting out, will earn no more than 40k a year. It's just disgusting to me when state senators and other officials can pull in six figures, taking little to no pay cuts, and they call it a crisis.