These are tough economic times and cuts are coming everywhere since there is less and less coming into the state budget. That does not change the fact that our children should suffer the least. Mid Year cuts will cause a disruption to the school year and to our classrooms.
WRITE OR CALL YOUR LEADERS
What should they do instead?
1. Stop mid year cuts.
2. Ease restrictions on funding for next year if cuts must come to free districts to be more creative with their funds since less money will be coming in to the schools.
3. Ask our state leaders to appeal more effectively to the Federal Government to fully fund the Special Education IDEA act. That would mean the districts and the state would have more money for all students. Right now the Federal Government says schools must provide very expensive services, and the Federal Government was supposed to fully fund this act and never has followed through with that promise. The Orange County Superintendent Bill Habermehl wisely points out that if the Federal Government even started an incremental pay-back program to start funding more and more each year, this would be money for the state and the schools. It would cost California NOTHING and it would mean a lot to our special education students as well as all students in our state.
Our leaders pile these letters in piles FOR and AGAINST to see what the electorate think. We all need to tell them. Here is all the contact information I have so far:
The Honorable Arnold Schwarzenegger, Governor (R)
State Capitol Building Sacramento, CA 95814
Ph: (916) 445-2841; (213) 897-0322 Fax: (916) 445-4633
California Senate Districts Senator Dick Ackerman - Senate District 33 (R)
17821 E. 17th Street, Suite 180 Tustin, CA 92780
(714) 573-1853 • FAX (714) 573-1859
e-mail: senator.ackerman@sen.ca.gov
Sacramento Office—Room 4066 •
(916) 445-4264 • FAX (916) 445-9754
Find your representatives and assembly members here:
http://www.ocvote.com
or
Click “find my district” on this page http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/defaulttext.asp
Other Contacts
Senator Tom Torlakson
Senate Education Committee
7th Senate District State Capitol Building,
Room 5050 Sacramento, CA 95814 Fax:
(916) 445-2527
Assemblyman Fabian Nunez Speaker of the Assembly
California State Assembly State Capitol
P.O. Box 942849 Sacramento, CA 94249-0046
Fax: (916) 319-2146
Senator Don Perata
President Pro Tempore California
State Senate State Capitol Building, Room 205
Sacramento, CA 95814
Fax: (916) 327-1997
Assemblyman Michael N. Villines
Assembly Minority Leader
California State Assembly State Capitol, Room 3104
Sacramento, CA 94249-0029
Fax: (916) 319-2129
Special Education Funding Congressman John Campbell House of Representatives – District 48 610 Newport Center Drive, Suite 330 Newport Beach, CA 92660 Fax: (949) 251-309 Congressman Gary Miller House of Representatives – District 42 1800 E Lambert Road, Suite 150 Brea, CA 92821 Fax: (714) 257-9242
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3 comments:
Any new update? Is Fed intervening and rescuing the state ed dept?
There has been no action taken yet. The longer it takes, the better the news for the kids at schools. If they hold off into next year and closer to the end of school, the cuts could still come but that gets us closer to next year's budget and a new school year. Cuts will come, but hopefully not midyear. Keep writing and talking to our leaders. Ask them to stay persistent in asking for funding for the IDEA from the federal government. That would cost the state NOTHING and it would mean a great deal of relief for our schools.
Carol-
"Where do you begin"...
The writer in the article was almost dead on, wouldn't you agree? If you worked for your district for 13 years and followed the steps, I think you would be pretty close the figure mentioned in the article. But wait, what if you were a PE teacher in a middle school and you had five classes and one prep period. The principal asked you if you wanted to teach 6/5's during your prep period, another PE class and you can make an additional 1/5 of your salary, how's the pay look now.
The writer mentioned working 9 months but that's not right either, Thanksgiving, Christmas and other days off that are not generally available to the private sector employees, so we are really talking about working 8 months, right?
I am sure you are a good teacher who cares about the kids and puts in the extra effort but certainly you know of other teachers who show up at the first bell and are gone at the end of the day. Those same teachers blow off the staff meetings that are in the contract and put in the bare minimum yet make the same income as someone like yourself (assuming they have the same time in the district and steps), right?
Oh and here is a good one, we always here that people should not be able to opt out of Social Security into a privatized plan. But you aren't in Social Security, you are in CALPERS. Who do you think is going to be better off at retirement, teachers and other civil servants who opt out of Social Security like you or people who work in the private sector that contribute to Social Security?
What do we need to do you ask?
How about forget teacher raises for at least the next couple of years, do you think a company that is in the red (the State of California) ought to be doing raises if they are in a deficit?
After two years, most teachers can not be fired for poor performance. Let's stretch that window to ten years, so that the best teachers are retained not the teachers with the most senority.
Vouchers..yep, if the private side can do a better job with less resources that certainly leaves more money for the remaining kids in public schools, right?
Maybe limit the vouchers to low income zip codes.
If the State is short $20 Billion, spending more on education is no longer a viable option, education has to make do on less and be more resourceful, right?
Let's face it, the rate of growth on education spending over the last ten years in California was unbelievable and with all the additional money spent on education, what do we have to show for it, not higher test scores.
So more money is not the answer.
We need to take everything off the board at this point and try new things.
Let's face it, if two teachers get married. They both work in the same district and have 13+ plus years in and have followed the steps, they are going to have annual income of over $160K and they are in their thirties. They work 8 months out of the year and share the same holidays, this would be a dream for most people living in Orange County, wouldn't you agree?
Most teachers are worth the money they are paid but a large number of teachers are not and if we are honest, you know this to be true, especially as a AP. Those under performing teachers due a disservice to our students and our grossly overpaid.
Steve E
Irvine
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