The Coming Cuts... How Far can Teachers Be Pushed?

My school district has already let us know that there are more cuts coming. Big ones. To personnel.

And it's not just my school district that plans on breaking out the hatchet. More teachers are going to lose their jobs and I've even heard that some districts are talking about a 10-12% pay cut on top of drastic personnel cuts.

10-12%!?

At what point does the public refuse to accept this?
At what point do we refuse?

At my school, we took a 3% pay cut this year, furlough days, and lost a heck of a lot of teachers. Forget the lesser resources, no school nurse or librarian, an unfilled AP position, and more impacted classrooms.

BTW, lots of schools did likewise.

Question: Would you come back to work next year for 12% less pay, even less resources, and an even greater workload that is comprised of higher expectations with even less support? Are we powerless because they have the ability to hold our livelihoods over us or are we able to stand up and say no more?

Across the country, the web (this ning) allows us the opportunity to mobilize in a manner unlike any we have ever before seen.

Therefore, at what point do we refuse to accept the terms that are becoming more and more and more unacceptable?

Is a Tornado Sized National Teacher Strike Brewing? How Far can Teachers Be Pushed?

It could be done, ya know. And it would be historical.

Is push about to come to shove in 2010?

BTW, we could simply stop testing for 3 years and allow those billions to remain in the system to fund the actual "teaching" that the schools are supposed to do. Anyone notice how testing has not been cut while everything else has? Hmmm... I wonder who is making a financial killing off of that right now?

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Comment by Ira G. Wilson on December 9, 2009 at 8:32am: It would seem then that Arizona is not the only state giving teachers the shaft. Not only have we not received a pay raise in 3 years but there have been RIFs, transfers, talk of closing schools, cutting programs, cutting counselors, librarians and nurses. To top it off, our wonderful legislature became the first in the nation to abolish tenure. That's right - a 10 year teacher is now the same as a fresh out of school cherry teacher. And this would seem to be a part of Arizona's attempt to get a piece of the $4 billion pie being parceled out to states based on their commitment to charter schools and progressive teaching.
The years of poor management, allowing burned out teachers to stay on too long are coming home to roost. The common perception is that education cannot and will not economize and cannot police itself so the legislature and the public will do it for them. So good teachers will be driven out of the profession, new teachers will give up and move to other professions, education as a whole will suffer. All this is going to put us further behind nations like India and China - places that regard education as a gift from God. Just my opinion.

Ira Wilson
History teacher at Tucson High Magnet School
blog: 21stcentteachadventures.blogspot.com

Comment by Peter Lane on December 9, 2009 at 10:52pm: Gotta love the California educational system... My remedial reading class is slated to be cut (again) this coming year. Would love it say it is because we have done an outstanding job closing the reading gap... unfortunately, this is not quite the case. But, hey, who needs to read to get out of school...