March 2, 2010: Today, over UTLA’s strenuous objections, the School Board voted to approve the issuance of 2,826 reduction in force (RIF) notices to LAUSD teachers and health and human services professionals. UTLA Elementary Vice President Julie Washington issued the following statement in response:
Our schools are still reeling from the deep cuts last year that led to bigger class sizes and the loss of 2,000 promising new educators. This round of layoffs would raise class size ratios (including 29 to 1 in kindergarten through third grade), increase student-counselor ratios to 1,000 to 1, and sharply reduce the number of school nurses and librarians. Cuts this deep will severely limit our ability to meet students’ most basic needs. It’s the students who will be cheated. Kids are hurt every time you increase class sizes, every time you take an art class away, every time you eliminate a librarian or raise a counselor’s load.
UTLA demands that the School Board and the superintendent do everything they can to stop the layoffs and make cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. No pot of money or expenditure can be left unscrutinized.
The school funding problem begins at the state level. Lawmakers in Sacramento have failed our students by cutting over $17 billion from our schools since 2008. California already ranks near the bottom for spending on schools, and now the governor wants billions more in cuts. You can’t fund a world-class education on a poverty-level budget. That said, in these times of greatly reduced resources, this School Board has the responsibility to parents and students to make funding decisions that prioritize the classroom.
UTLA recognizes that LAUSD is in a fiscal crisis and has begun negotiating with LAUSD on options to save jobs and offset the damage to student learning, but we will not stand by and allow our students’ educational program to be dismantled. UTLA members stand united to fight all layoffs and to defend our students’ learning environment.
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