Here We Go Again. Will Teachers (i.e. my Wife) Have a Job This Summer

Well maybe I should look at it as another reason to hold off on the big aquarium. You see it seems to happen every year about this time. The anxiety of will the wife have a job after June.

You see she is a HS teacher with the San Diego Unified School District. Every year at this time they give out pink slips to hundreds of teachers. Why so early? Well its either a rule or law that pink slips must be out by March 15th, even though (at least in the past) most of the teachers are retained after the final budget is hammered out in June. I have no idea why so early, to me it is more of a torture than water boarding to let some one go through 3 months wondering if they will have a job or not. The uncertainty makes it very difficult to plan out your life, not to mention to do so a bit stress free.

Each year the budget also gets worse so less and less teachers actually get their slips rescinded each year. Last year we went all the way till the day before school starts in Sept before she got her’s rescinded, so we went through a tight summer. Personally I kinda feel it is done on purpose. Cut the teachers budgets and lay them off so all the parents get upset and ok a tax increase to cover costs. It happens every few years, just so happens we have a tax increase on the ballot this year so that makes the wait even more unbearable. Most of the budget comes from the state and yes the state is hurting, but Im sure there are other areas that are not needed or can be cut a lot more than our education budget. That should be the last place to be cut. Also I think the entire education department needs to be gone over with a fine tooth comb and restructured, Im sure more cuts can come from other areas rather than the teachers themselves. I mean CA pays almost the highest amount per kid and we are still in the hole?

Laying off some redundant bureaucrat dosent create the headlines needed though to get more money.

I also blame the unions that never seem to bend and always ask for more. I support our teachers and yes I think they should be paid more for what they do but reality doesn’t see it that way and current reality does call for new ways of doing things. The unions seem to never want to give any concessions, they would rather no body work than cut a little here and there. I am speaking in general terms as I have not looked to deeply into the local union and their dealings. But lets take what just happened. The district proposed to the union that the deadline for pink slips be moved to June 16th. Seems reasonable, closer to the actual budget more time to find money so more likely that slips issued will be the actual amount needed and less stress on a lot of teachers and families. Nope, the union wont agree to a simple request like that unless the district agrees not to issue any layoffs at all. I mean lets come back to reality mr union leader. I hate them but I know layoffs will happen and are needed, trying to make an un reasonable agreement like that in exchange for a reasonable request that will make life a little more bearable for your members is an example of how I see unions operating.

So last night the district voted and 1633 pink slips will be going out next week. We sit on pins and needles waiting to see if we are one of them, she still dosent have the tenure needed to not have to worry which is another union practice I’m not fond of (last hired, first fired) but thats another post for another day.

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