laid

off.

It's official.  I got my pink slip today.  I teach out the end of the year, and have no job for the next school year.  My particular school laid off 25% of their teachers-- the district about 10%.  It is really stinky.

If you live in CA, you can help by telling your state assembly representatives to fund education.  How to they expect us to educate people to be competitive in a global economic market if they are forcing districts to increase class sizes, and making our state and public universities financially inaccessible.   Call 1-888-268-4334, enter your zip code (in ca) and you will be connected to your local people.  I imagine that most of your children (when you have them) will go to public school, so this isn't just for me!

Facts:

• More than $17 bil. has been cut from CA public schools and colleges in the last two years, and the budget calls for another $2.5 bil. for this coming school year.
• K-12 schools have suffered 60% of the state budget cuts,
• CA ranks 46th nationally in per-pupil funding
• More than 16,000 teachers lost their jobs last year in CA, and that number will grow soon
• Remedial summer school cancelled across the state
• Art, music, vocational education, and PE cutback
• Community college funding cut by the equivalent of admission fees for 250,000 students and fees raised by 30%
• Cal State University tuition raised $32 percent
• University of California tuition raised 10%

Ok, end of my rant.  I know that the economy sucks, and that CA has been greatly affected.  But, I think that there are many other places for funding to be cut than education, as well as other places to raise revenue without raising existing taxes.  

I really try to not get political here, but for this, I just can't help it.