Wash. school districts laying off more(2,900) teachers.

[billyoc]

Washington's largest teachers union says it can confirm that 2,922 public school teachers and 332 school support professionals have received layoff notices as school districts cut spending.

The Washington Education Association said late Friday it expects the numbers to rise as additional information is received.

Friday was the deadline for school districts to issue layoff notices to certificated staff for the 2009-2010 school year.

The WEA's Rich Wood says there are approximately 62,000 teachers and other certificated public school employees in Washington.

...

http://www.examiner.com/a-2018637~Wash__school_districts_laying_off_more_teachers.html

[undergroundnomore]

1. This is a sad state of affairs

I'm seeing far too often.

I live in Cartersville, GA and this year the teacher's contracts said basically that they had a job if the budget allows. The teachers are tied to a contract that says they must report to school the first day in order to find out if they have a job. They will have to work four days free. This means that although they must attend in-service they won't get paid for that.

I teach in Rome, GA and we will be laying off some parapros, custodians, and about twelve teachers. In another school district here in Georgia the school will be laying off the custodians and teachers will be responsible for cleaning their rooms.

If we as a nation believe our children are our future then we must do everything we can to provide our children with quality education. We shrug our shoulders and ask why have difficulty in retaining good teachers. Education should be one of our top priorities. All other priorities from health care on down depend upon our schools training our future scientists, doctors, lawyers, and yes future Presidents.

I know that education is one of the building blocks of Obama's vision for the future and I hope he and Congress will do something and soon to help our school systems. Our children deserve nothing less.

[Andy823]

2. I live in a small town in NCW

Last week they had an article in the paper about how many teachers, and other support professionals would be laid off, along with the other towns in here in NCW. Wenatchee being the largest city in the area was hit the hardest, and here in my town there were only a few teachers, more aids, and one custodian. They did some cutting in other places, but as usual, the sports programs were pretty much left untouched. I will know things are "really" getting bad in our area when they actually cut some of the sports programs back! We went through a tough times about 4 years ago, and they let teachers go instead of cutting back on the sports. They finally had to charge a $25 dollar players fee for all those who wanted to play sports, but nothing was cut. We actually have a golf team in this little town, the kids playing are all from well to do families, and it was never touched. The program costs as much as at teachers salary for a year, and there are only around 4 or 6 kids playing, but they cut a teacher instead of cutting the golf program! I think a lot of schools need to rethink their priorities when it comes to their budgets. I have nothing against sports, but teachers should come before the sports programs, along with books, computers, and the other things students need to learn!

[undergroundnomore]

3. True Enough

sports teams are usually the last thing on the chopping block. Then again for some of my students sports, like basketball and football are what offers them the chance, sometimes the only chance, to go to college with a scholarship to further their education.

When I first started teaching times were tough. We had to wash our boards, run the sweeper across the carpet, and we had a limit on how many copies we could make. I had computers that didn't work. Textbooks for teaching WordPerfect 3.0 while my computers had WordPerfect 5.0. We couldn't order new textbooks, salaries were frozen in step.

Not only did I not get a raise for three years but the cost of health insurance, which is deducted partially from my pay check went up effectively lowering my salary for the first three years of employment.

I was a divorced Mom at the time with two kids. Believe me it was very difficult. Thank goodness my boys were young and good sports and that I knew how to stretch my pay.

The real victims of all this are the kids. They suffer when good teachers choose to leave. They are hurt when schools have to say no to field trips and lack updated textbooks. For the last five years my school has provided free breakfast for everyone so low income students will be more likely to get breakfast without worrying about others seeing them get free breakfast. The improvement in test scores and academics have been seen here. I'd hate to see the free breakfast program end.

I do the best with what I have. Even if they freeze my pay I will survive in spite of my husband's job loss. It's the kids who will pay the price for this mess that Bush left for Obama to clean up.