CUTS HURT:
California Teachers Association President David A. Sanchez joined with Shasta County educators to protest nearly $5 billion in cuts from the state’s education funding, cuts that will hurt students as well as all school employees.

The California Teachers Association (CTA), a union representing 340,000 educators at all levels, took its protest of proposed state budget cuts for education on the road Monday, May 5, with a large yellow school bus and dozens of affected school employees standing outside of Meadow Lane Elementary School in Anderson.

The site was chosen because five of the 11 teachers receiving pink slips or layoff notices in the Cascade Elementary School District come from that school, said Kathleen Haagenson, president of the Anderson Cascade Teachers Association.

“The Cascade Union Elementary School District estimates it will lose $656,000 in funding under the governor’s proposed cuts, including approximately $42,000 in special education funding,” Haagenson told a hand-full of television, radio and print journalists on hand for a series of short speeches on the topic of budget cuts.

Facing an estimated deficit of nearly $20 billion statewide, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenneger is proposing chopping $4.8 billion from the state’s education spending plan for fiscal year 2008-2009, explained CTA president David Sanchez, a former kindergarten teacher for the Santa Maria-Bonita School District in Santa Maria, Santa Barbara County.

“We are here today to talk about the damage the governor’s cuts are doing to schools here in Anderson, in Redding and across Shasta County,” said Sanchez, the CTA’s first Latino president.

“The nearly 30,000 students in the 25 Shasta County public school districts will be hurt by the $10 million loss of education funds that these state cuts would cause next school year,” Sanchez continued.

“Some of the dozens of Shasta County educators who received pink slips are here today to speak out against the chaos that the governor has set in motion. Layoffs in the Shasta County Office of Education could mean shutting down five of the county’s preschools and after-school sites that serve many lower-income families in the area. The havoc is spreading,” Sanchez said.

“A state budget that looks at cuts alone is not a solution because it doesn’t solve California’s underlying problem of inadequate and unstable revenue sources. We can’t talk about spending cuts without also talking about ways to increase revenues and protecting our public schools,” Sanchez continued.

Jessica LaFayette, a first-grade teacher at Meadow Lane school, described the emotional toll on both her family and her students after receiving layoff notices at the end of each of her first three years of teaching.

“I continue coming to school and teaching our students, but in the back of my mind, I know I have to seek other employment and find a way to pay for health care,” LaFayette said.

“It affects the students as well because they worry about which teachers will be here next year,” she added.

Jason Pasero, a fourth-grade teacher at Meadow Lane, is one of the 14,000 educators statewide who recently received pink slips due to the state budget turmoil.

“This is very upsetting to me and to my students,” he said.