The latest layoffs: teachers and school employees

Just like firemen and policemen, teachers are necessary for communities to thrive. In my home state of California, one of the biggest cities just announced a major layoff. LA Times:

L.A. Unified board OKs layoff notices to about 9,000 employees.

Because of the state and national fiscal crises, the district is facing a nearly $700-million shortfall over the next 18 months.

District officials said they hope to avoid laying off all of the employees who will be given notice.

But Supt. Ramon C. Cortines cautioned that the district’s deficit might grow. “If the revenue continues to be in the tank, we believe we will take another hit,” he said.

Some board members said they were concerned that layoffs would harm the quality of student educations.

“You can’t have a reduction in force of this magnitude and meet everyone’s needs,” Marlene Canter said.

It is a tragedy that will be repeated in other populous states. There are budgets and you have to pay people with money. If you don’t have the money, then you have to layoff people or make cuts somewhere. Apparently, they have cut whatever they could and now are cutting the expenses at the labor level.

We already have overcrowding issues in the school so larger classes will continue to hurt the quality of education. The government wasted TRILLIONS on the Fraud bailouts for bankrupt companies like AIG, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and countless others but they think it is OK to layoff public teachers. To me, this is another sign of the Bush-Obama Depression is already underway.

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Robert M Terwilliger, March 11, 2009:

Any comments surrounding the bailout must be accompanied by questions regarding the goodness of this political/economic system called capitalism. of the four systems it is supposed to be the one that lets the entreprenuer take the risks and suffer the consequences. I don’t see that those who have taken the risks are suffering. More likely the people who need to be supported such as the teachers of this country who are qualified to better the general outlook of those being educated should get the bailout. Then maybe the better the education of the students the better people will be made in order to contribute to the economy. We are a failing economy because the greed of those who are controlling things is sapping the lives of those who still believe in this country as the land of opportunity. Opportunity knocks on the door of those whao gain the confidence and those who do gain it do so through a better education that allows them to rise up. I did it on a part time basis with things like the GI Bill and my employer. They anted up and gave me the money to get the education I needed. At the lower levels of education we must foster the same confidence and give the teachers and the schools the right amount of money to work with not cut them back and hobble the only system that will give us the entreprenuers we need to go forward. Let’s do it right the first time.