So far, statewide, 3000 teachers and staff have been laid off. Actually, that number will grow, since the revenues expected by the school districts will be significantly less than predicted. How di they get into this mess? First, students are fleeing the State, replaced by illegal aliens—and they are more costly than honest kids. Second, these districts spent COVID money are crazy programs and hirings—without planning for when that money runs out.
“Thousands of teachers and school counselors have found themselves out of work due to layoffs, but officials say complicated factors include declining enrollment and shrinking budgets.
As another school year comes to a close, some 3,000 California teachers and counselors have found themselves out of work due to layoffs, but officials say the complicated factors involved include declining enrollment and shrinking budgets.
In an interview with ABC7, California Teachers Association president David Goldberg said, “Member leaders are taking this up and really taking this to districts and saying, ‘This is unconscionable and we will not back down around this.'”
Unless unions can print money, this is going to get worse. Expect unions to demand walkouts and strikes to fight back. It will get ugly.
Teacher layoffs across California prompt criticism from union, but solutions could prove complicated
ByTony Cabrera , ABC7, 5/29/25 https://abc7.com/post/teacher-layoffs-california-prompt-criticism-union-solutions-could-prove-complicated/16589527/
Thousands of teachers and school counselors have found themselves out of work due to layoffs, but officials say complicated factors include declining enrollment and shrinking budgets.
As another school year comes to a close, some 3,000 California teachers and counselors have found themselves out of work due to layoffs, but officials say the complicated factors involved include declining enrollment and shrinking budgets.
In an interview with ABC7, California Teachers Association president David Goldberg said, “Member leaders are taking this up and really taking this to districts and saying, ‘This is unconscionable and we will not back down around this.'”
Union leaders accuse school districts of mismanagement, ballooning administrator salaries, and not pulling from reserves.
“We have districts sometimes who lead with layoffs and have millions of dollars in reserves and say that’s for a rainy (day),” Goldberg said. “It is raining now. It is pouring now.”
The California Teachers Association also points to the uncertainty surrounding the federal threats to dismantle Department of Education, and the need to fight for more state funding, especially with California having the fifth largest economy in the world.
“But really, the fifth largest economy in the world? You would think we’d have the smallest class sizes in the country, right? So we need to challenge our way of thinking about this and the way this gets framed sometimes,” Goldberg said.
But it may not be so easy. Ron Hacker, Santa Ana Unified School District’s chief business officer, says part of the current situation is due to declining enrollment.
“There are budgetary consequences,” Hacker said. “We get paid based on the number of students who are attending school. If there are fewer students, then our revenue goes down significantly.”
Another major factor is pandemic funds running out — millions of state and federal dollars, with expiration dates, that helped districts hire hundreds of teachers and dozens of counselors at the time.
“With the COVID money no longer flowing, we can’t sustain having those additional teachers and additional counselors,” Hacker said. “And that’s why Santa Ana — as well as other districts across California — are finding themselves in unfortunate position of having to do layoffs.”
Santa Ana has some of the most layoffs in the state, with more than 260 employees losing their jobs. While class size will go up, it is still within collective bargaining limits.
The district was able to limit layoffs with early retirements, but the union says that’s just one of the solutions. The CTA urges districts to also look into administrator salaries, use up reserves first, and re-envision how investments in education are made.
“One way is: Continue to think about how we’re going to get more funding for public education,” Goldberg said. “But in the meantime, laying people off and devastating communities actually cuts away people’s confidence in those schools.
In his book “Personal Opinions of One Common Man” the author advocates ending the practice of allocating school funds based on ADA and paying teachers a specific salary based on each counties’ cost of living factor. The author further advocates that each classroom not have more than 31 students nor less than 15 students. When a class size exceeds 31 students (32) split the class into 2 classes.
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It is not complicated. It’s the Democrat policies that are destroying our state. We have some of the dumbest voters in the World, proven by the Election of Newsom for governor and Adam Schiff for U.S. Senator.
A little research reveals that the feds and our governor both propose to slash public school funding.
The Feds are proposing to shift the cash around from the department of education and have other federal agencies pick up the slack by assuming the responsibility for running those programs.
The state keeps promising to pay back the hundreds of millions of dollars which they skimmed from the prop 98 funds, from over the last couple of years.
The state will do whatever they want; damn the teachers and the communities which will bear the brunt of this state’s incredibly inept mismanagement of, ‘the world’s fifth largest economy’.
Why those republicans who are already in the legislature won’t grow a backbone and create an alternative public education funding protocol, is beyond me.
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