California Teachers Protesting Against Cuts

Teachers in California are launching a weeklong effort across the state to pressure lawmakers to pass tax extensions and increases in order to prevent any further cuts to schools. It has come to light that three hundred members of the California Teachers Association will be holding daily sit-ins at the Capitol to protest deeper cuts to education, health, welfare and public safety because of California's $15.4 billion budget debit. The teacher protestors will be competing for attention with peace activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed while fighting in Iraq.

According to the State Legislative Analyst’s Officer, the maximum likely cuts this year are $4.3 billion to K-12 (kindergarten through twelfth grade) education, which would be around $750 per student or $22,500 for a 30-student classroom. It has felt that such cuts will devastate the K-12 system.

In order to cover the budget shortfalls the schools have the opposition of taking loans. But without any increase in funding they would swiftly become insolvent. It has come to light that around 110 California school districts are already facing insolvency. It is believed that the number will continue to increase as debt servicing costs are rising.

While the public education system in California is being fundamentally dismantled, the teachers’ unions are playing a positively deceitful role. Over the past three years, California’s schools have eliminated around 30,000 teaching positions.