Pink Slip

You'd have to be living under a rock to not be aware of the budget crisis in the state of California. You'd also probably have to put great distance between yourself and any part of education to know that the budget crisis is having a major impact on school as we know it. For the past several months (and last year too) every newer teacher in the state has been worried about a dreaded pink slip or RIF notice deadline of March 15th (this year March 13th because of the weekend). Schools, both public and private, have seen such cuts in funding over the past two years that there is no way to cut more money without cutting people. Junior colleges, Cal States and UCs are also being effected.


RUSD scrapped by last year without losing many teachers (and even hired more mid-October!). This year will be a different situation. Last night, at the Board meeting, they approved 316 RIF notices that will need to be sent out before Friday. The general consenses seems to be that every first or second year teacher will receive one, along with teachers on special assignments (all those literacy coaches, district specialists, etc).

I know that Central will be losing at least one Language Arts teacher, possibly more due to class size "un-reduction" and loss of double block periods for under performing students. I happen to be the newest teacher in the department so I figured that I would be getting a pink slip. I was somewhat assured when I saw the district seniority list and my ranking of 487 (meaning 486 teachers were below me), but the stress is still there and my hair is still falling out.

This afternoon my principal came into my tutoring session to let me know that I am not on the RIF list; in fact, no one in my entire department at CMS is either. Good news is that I'll have a job. As he turned and walked out the door, he added, "Now we wait until after May 15th to see where your job is at..."

On a related note, I was intrigued as I read President Obama's first public speech about education reform. Most of you know, I don't particularly like him or his politics, but I was impressed that he was willing to stand up and say some wildly unpopular things for the Democratic party.

Interesting statements he made that will surely offend the Dems and the Teacher Unions who paid, in part, to elect him (in no particular order);

• There is a mass of teachers who are undertrained and thus performing poorly
• Bad teachers, reguardless of seniority, need to be out of the classroom
• Teachers should be paid on based on merit
• Our school year and day is not long enough
• Our textbooks aren't challanging enough to compete with other nations
• Our state standards are not focusing on what it important for our future generations
• We will "fund" the mandate of NCLB properly (yeah, right, like to see that one happen)