Editorial:
It has become an annual ritual where school districts start the process of trying to find ways to balance their budgets with a threat of teacher layoffs. Across the county each school district is targeting teacher salaries as the way to go, in order to bring about cost savings. San Diego City Schools is asking for an 8 percent cut in teachers’ salaries, as is Chula Vista Elementary, two percent in San Ysidro, two percent in Vista and the drum beat goes on.
This threat, manifested in pink slips, is reinforced by the school administrations which send out literature to the community presenting their side of the story and laying blame at the feet of the teachers’ unions as being unyielding! More often than not, the threat of teacher layoffs pits the new teacher against the older teacher with greater tenure. The new teachers are the first to receive layoff notices.
Often times, unions come under attack for various reasons, primarily for being too political with undue influence in the political process, but it is times like this that the teachers’ unions prove their value. Without unions’ collectively bargaining in the interest of the teachers, teachers would be at the whim of school boards and administrators.
Teachers are not naïve and they do understand the economic circumstances of their districts and of the State. Teachers in general are willing to work with their districts to find fair and equitable solutions to the budget crises. The question that is asked, are these salary cuts fair and equitable?
The economic crisis in the State of California has dragged on now for several years, and each year the State calls on the educators and teachers to make sacrifices in order to balance the budget. Teachers have not received a pay raise during these years, they have not been afforded a cost of living increase, teachers now have to pay more for their benefits, and now, on top of all this, teachers are now being asked to take an 8 percent pay cut. You couple this with the cost increases that everyone has to face, this becomes an even greater sacrifice made by the teachers.
Granted teacher pay does take up the bulk of any school budget. In times such as these there will be concessions made, but what we don’t hear about are any shared sacrifices being made by the administrators.
Teachers bear the brunt of criticism when it comes to education and they are the focus of school improvement, improve the educators and you will improve the schools. At the same time teachers are being asked to do more and more each day. The teacher’s day doesn’t start when the school bell rings – their day starts an hour earlier as they prepare for the day. And the day doesn’t end when the students are dismissed. Teachers are now asked to say for an extended day tutoring struggling students, prepare lessons plans, grade papers. Each year they are asked to change the way they teach according to the latest research in education, one year it is the “Blue Print for Success,” “No Child Left Behind,” and now “The Race to the Top.”
Without State funding for class size reduction, teachers will soon be asked to teach more students per day, focus on the struggling student, and improve test scores overall. They will be asked to do all this on less income.
On top of this is the continuing political mantra about teacher accountability and finding the best teachers to teach in the low performing schools. This then leads to the question of where are the future teachers going to come from? College students who once might have considered education as their future are going to take a hard look becoming a teacher. Is it worth it? Will school districts lose out on attracting the best people into teaching? The community itself will have to ask themselves these questions as well, better yet they will have to go to their board meetings and ask their respective board members what is important in education!
Bottom line education has always been about the teacher, the vast majority of teachers are good teachers and it is important that these good teachers are retained, it is also important to recruit good young people to take on one of the most important roles in our society – educating our youth. There is an old saying ‘you get what you pay for!’ Will students and their families be getting their money’s worth by cutting teacher’s salaries without shared sacrifices?