Comments on: A Bailout for LAUSD?

By: Delaine Zody

Delaine Zody — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:48:47 +0000

Everything I have heard says the school year will not be shortened. Other cuts will be made first. Fresno Unified has a huge surplus of money (that’s what happens when you don’t update facilities) and will be able to weather two years without teacher cuts. Of course, I believe that means not replacing all of the retiring teachers which will be a large number this year.

By: ARD

ARD — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:12:01 +0000

I agree that cutting short the school year is preferable to letting go the newest and most energized teachers who are also the teachers of tomorrow. The population of our students has not been cut because of the budget so we need to retain the same number of teachers. They won’t come back when the crisis is over. They will have found new careers in other states. Keep the talent of our new teachers. Talent has no price and cannot be replaced easily.

By: Bilingual in TX

Bilingual in TX — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:22:28 +0000

I hope that your district can find a resolution to the situation, but I wouldn’t hold my breath. My district let go of teachers, it turned out to be about 350, and there is still a deficit and now a need to hire about 200 teachers. In my humble opinion, there needs to be a severe overhaul of the financing and accountability systems, but I unfortunately have no suggestions.

By: Ken Allan

Ken Allan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 08:33:41 +0000

Kia ora Mathew

I sympathise with a 2009 disaster, both to the teachers and the students, in your district. It’s always difficult to point the finger when it comes to budget cuts. I wonder if all the options have been looked at, though.

Some companies I’ve heard about, who are in financial difficulty, have given employees an option of so many weeks unpaid leave, thereby preserving their ‘positions’ and providing an income, while at the same time dealing with a budgetary problem. Doing this in schools in a district may provide some sense of continuity and permit other avenues to be looked at in time.

Frankly, the people who are to suffer the most will be the students. And it is likely to precipitate a situation difficult to resolve in the far future when budget difficulties may have eased. Teachers who lose their jobs, and can’t find other teaching jobs in a district, rarely come back to teach in that district for they often find other occupations.

I hope your district authorities see some sense, and look at the long term effects of mass layoffs.

Catchya later
from Middle-earth

By: Regina Nunley

Regina Nunley — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 06:55:06 +0000

Very nice recap of Lausd’s horrible situation, Funny (not really) how little teachers are valued not only in Lausd, but in California in general. Parents don’t seem to realize how much we are holding up the fibre of society…once many of our new, vibrant colleagues are released from duty, we will all have more students, and be totally unable to do the excellent work that smaller ratios was starting to show in test scores. Teachers cannot afford to strike, and most are too invested in their students to have much energy to fight back politically. Let’s hope for a miracle so no TEACHER GETS LEFT BEHIND,

Matthew – best wishes in your marriage, and in the District!!

By: CityTeacher

CityTeacher — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:55:40 +0000

*GRG*GRAG*GARG* To prevent myself from becoming particularly violently angry toward A) LAUSD B) Arnold C) Dr. David from the district who came to waste an hour of our P.D. time yesterday going over “our” assessment statistics (turned out to be another school’s statistics) in order to justify his bloated paycheck and his “required” position….I think some anger leaked out nonetheless…Look, at this point, I’d appreciate the 5 days of “vacation” as a chunk at the end of the school year, extend my summer a bit, and I’ll be happy with that…

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 03:15:50 +0000

Great post. I think that if anything should be saved in the budget, it should be education.