Who, in their right mind, would choose to be a teacher in California? Year-after-year, during this decade, thousands of teachers in the state have had to live and work under notice that their job may be eliminated. Thousands have been handed pink slips by March 15, which is the law, if a school district employee is not guaranteed a job for the next fall. So, those teachers have to go to their classrooms the rest of the school year with the every day stress of knowing they may soon be out of work. I”m certain that stress impacts their attitude and quality of their work.
The Auburn Journal recently reported that the number of pink slips passed out this year was 20,000. In another article about the teacher layoffs, Margaret Gaston wrote that this action could be devastating for the future of education in California. She cited that the state education system is going to have the daunting task of replacing 100,000 teachers, over the next ten years, due to just one factor, retirements. That is about one-third of the state”s teachers.
At the moment, there are likely few California teachers who are not contemplating a migration to another state. They would be foolish not to. The Fort Worth, Texas school district has purchased billboards in San Diego that read, “Your future is in our classroom”. It likely is. Las Vegas and Henderson, Nevada are also recruiting California teachers. Some of these districts are waving several thousand dollar sign-on bonuses as an incentive for teachers to make the move.
There is no question that we are destined for a major brain drain from California. I laughed at a bumper sticker that I noticed this week. It read, “Nothing scares me. I have kids.” I know what the message was implying, I have kids, too, but I think California parents with school-age kids should fear for their children”s education, or lack thereof. Right here in Lakeport, students recently staged a protest over the teacher cutbacks. They realize the impact that fewer teachers will have on their education.
I agree with Lee Iacoca, who in his new book, “Where Have All the Leaders Gone?” wrote, “In a completely rational society teachers would be near the tip of the pyramid, not near the bottom.” Here we are in 2008 and new teachers earn an average of 30 percent less than nearly every other college graduate. Plus, in this state, we ask them to go to work every day with the fear that they will not even have that income next school year. They might have to go back to the part-time jobs that helped them scrape by while getting their education, or leave the state.
I am not certain what the answer is. Obviously, a terrific state economy would help. James Fleming, president of California City Superintendents Association thinks the repeal of Senate Bill 1419 is part of the answer. Fleming says it leads to the inefficient providing of non-educational services such as transportation and maintenance, adding as much as 10 to 40 percent in costs.
However it happens, we must stop treating state teachers as pawns in an annual game of state budget chess. We must provide our teachers with the salaries they deserve and the respect they are worthy of for preparing future generations of California citizens. There has to be other areas to cut expenses.
Gary Dickson is publisher of the Clear Lake Observer*American and the Lake County Record-Bee.
