Health & Fitness
Blog: What is Going on With LAUSD?
The LAUSD Board of Education approved more furlough days. How will teachers and unions vote?
My students want to know if there will be a school for them next year. My tenured colleagues want to know if they’ll have jobs. And just like the past six months, no one knows anything about the future, except that it’s not good.
Today the LAUSD Board approved 10 more furlough days. This would be the fourth year in which furloughs were implemented and would consist of a combination of a loss of school days and unpaid holidays. It would shorten an already short school year and potentially save jobs—if the union agrees.
Find out what's happening in Echo Park-Silver Lakewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
There has been a national trend to blame teachers and unions. Teachers, like many employees these days, have been asked to give up a lot and do more with less. They can vote to keep their jobs and their colleagues’ jobs but make less—for the fourth year in a row. Their decision not only affects them, but affects the students and their parents (my students).
And just like any other voter, the teachers didn’t chose how LAUSD money was spent, or misspent, and now they’ve been given the option to vote for a smaller salary with no guarantees that this plan could even save any jobs. It’s like being asked which hand would you like chopped off – the left or the right.
Find out what's happening in Echo Park-Silver Lakewith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I have taught adults high school and ESL classes at Evans Community Adult School for 11 years. This has been a terrible year for us, with the LAUSD Board slashing money for early childhood education, adult education and arts classes. All year we’ve wondering why the Board has been specifically targeting adult education, which was only 2% of the budget and also generated its own Federal money - money which helped the entire school system! Adult education has given back to Los Angeles by helping immigrants and high school dropouts improve their lives, get jobs and help their children. There has been talk of replacing LAUSD schools with charter schools, with funds coming Eli Broad. There’s something going on here and it’s not just about the budget.
Now the unions can vote. If they vote for more furlough days, some teachers feel that they are just kowtowing to a Board who doesn’t appreciate or respect them. A Board that might lay them off next year, or walk into their classroom and fire them as Superintendent Deasy did earlier this year. I think most teachers will vote for the furloughs, to save their jobs and their colleagues’ jobs (cutting off the non-dominate hand). But only time will tell how the vote will go or what will actually happen. Until then, we’ll just keep waiting, and waiting.