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The LAUSD Board discussing layoffs during their March 31st meeting
Despite a two-week stall to hold talks between Board members, bargaining units, teachers, parents, and even the Mayor, about alternatives to layoffs, and despite weeks of protests organized by the UTLA, during their regular weekly meeting the Board faced the task of voting on the proposal which will now send many employees to the unemployment office. Joining Board President Monica Garcia in voting to approve the layoffs were Vice President Yolie Flores Aguilar, Marlene Canter, and Richard Vladovic, while Julie Korenstein, Tamar Galatzan, and Marguerite LaMotte voted no.
During the meeting, the UTLA sent Twitter updates regarding the heartfelt speakers who took the microphone to have their thoughts heard by the Board, and about the many people gathered outside once again in protest. Following the vote, the mood shifted to funereal, according to an LAUSD employee attending the meeting who spoke with LAist. On the heels of the vote came the launch of Mayor Villaraigosa's Save LA Teachers website (with a post oddly published earlier than its 7:27 p.m. timestamp referencing the encouraging news that almost 2,000 elementary teachers will get to keep their jobs) aimed at demonstrating ways the LAUSD can save jobs by engaging in other reductions; with the vote approving the layoffs on the record, to what extent this site can and will help is not clear.
In response to the layoffs, Superintendent Ramon Cortines "said he would continue to look for more money and savings to keep some of the jobs," but UTLA President A.J. Duffy is far less optimistic: "Clearly, it's about getting rid of employees, teachers and staff," he said. As federal stimulus funds arrive at the LAUSD, the application of the money will hopefully be scrutinized; while it should go to saving the jobs ostensibly lost yesterday, it may well already be set aside elsewhere to be used as the Board sees fit. Unfortunately, we have a shaky precedent: California ranks consistently in the high 40s out of the 50 states when it comes to education spending.
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This is so, so, so sad.
According to the state of CA LAUSD spends $10,536 per pupil on an avg daily attendance.
http://www.ed-data.k12.ca.us
According to the census, CA spent $10830 in 04-05, http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/education/010125.html
Placing the state 8th behind Del (10,910), Mass (11,267), Conn (11,527), VT (11,835), DC (12,979), NJ (13,800) and NY (14,119).
LAUSD AVG teacher salary was $63,391 last year. CA median income was $54,385.
LAUSD pupil to teacher ratio was 19.8. 693680 students enrolled, 34,961 full time teachers.
Placing the state 8th behind Delaware, Mass, Conn, VT, DC, NJ and NY.
The census figure includes all spending, construction and such.
In 04-05, according to the census, CA spent nearly twice as much capital outlays and expenditures than the 2nd school TX, and more than 3 times than the 3rd school.
Those are facts, backed up by links to govt sites, not "think tank" types.
The unions should have accepted pay cuts and furloughs. Now 5K teachers will be out of work.
The average salary for an NBA basketball player is $5,000,000 per year. Yet which one has the potential to have a more of a positive influence on a young person's developing mind, the basketball player or the teacher?
great point... but so what?
But I could make a million counter points.
Life's not fair.
Movie stars get paid millions of dollars. I don't see any of them putting their money up to fund public schools. Sean Penn and Barbara Streisand are the biggest liberals in the industry but they don't throw their money for public education. They didn't even send their kids to public schools.
But lets face reality here, people in CA have complained about our education system for the last 20+ years. we've never changed anything. The system we have is a failure and needs to be started over from scratch. Smaller districts (WE COMPLAIN ABOUT CLASS SIZE BUT NOT DISTRICT SIZES- 7 board members and almost 700K students). More after school programs. More tutoring. An efficient way to grade teachers and administrators. A well rounded curriculum. And there should be incentives for teachers. If their classes outperform upgraded testing standards they should get bonuses.
Until then we'll just be in the same cycle. The whole system in the state and district is the problem.
Any reason the actual numbers are not in the post? Around 3,000 new teachers and 2,000 tenured teachers totaling over 5,000 teachers getting cut. That is staggering as a future unemployment statistic, but all from one school district?
Random fun fact: Non-hispanic whites make up 29.3% of Los Angeles's population, but 9% of the LAUSD student body.
Date from the state:
Hispanic: 62.4%
White: 15.4%
African American: 9.6%
Asian: 7.7%
Filipino: 2.3%
Multiple/ No response: 1.8%
5K teachers laid off is 14% of the teacher work force.
UBS yesterday announced they were laying off 10% of their employees. That's after the job cut they did last year.
paul, i'm seeing a variety of numbers given, from 5,400 to 7,000, and i didn't feel comfortable attaching a figure to the story until i could get a more definitive number. (7,000 is the number i was told by someone at the meeting, with media outlets reporting 5,400 to 6,500+).