California is reeling from the worst drop in state revenue since the 1930s.
Statewide, unemployment stands at 12.5 percent. In the Sacramento area, it’s 12.8 percent. People have seen their homes lose value and many with jobs worry about losing them.
School districts, like other areas of the public sector, are feeling the pinch of declining tax revenues.
There is no sugarcoating this harsh reality.
Yet the Sacramento City Unified teachers union, alone among large school districts in our region, is acting as if business as usual should reign. The leadership believes that the union should not sit down and negotiate with the district until the summer of 2011, when the current teacher contract expires.
In taking this stance, the Sacramento teachers union seems to be following the advice in a January 2009 memo from the negotiations committee of the California Teachers Association: “Maintaining salary and benefits at current levels is a priority; keeping the status quo is a constructive victory” and “Do not agree to re-open a closed contract. If the contract remains closed, the district cannot impose cutbacks. It is OK to just say no!”
Every person in this community should know just exactly what this “protect the status quo, just say no” stance means: It means throwing young teachers under the bus. It means increasing class sizes for kids. It means cutting back on art and music programs, books, labs, computers, academic programs.
Just who does such a decision benefit? It benefits veteran teachers.
People of goodwill in this community need to stand up and say loudly: Forcing arbitrary teacher layoffs, based almost exclusively on seniority, is harmful to schools.
Alternatives do exist – and exploring them does not mean that anyone hates teachers. It simply is an acknowledgment of tough choices.
For example, the Sacramento City Unified district could save the jobs of:
• 16 teachers, if all employees accept a $15 co-pay for health visits. (Most teacher co-pays in the Sacramento area range between $15 and $25.)
• 25 teachers, if employees contribute $50 a month toward health premiums.
• 43 teachers, if employees accept three furlough days a year.
• 32 teachers, if the union accepts a temporary freeze of automatic “step and column” pay increases for years of service and education.
In the long term, of course, the district must continue to make progress in dealing with declining enrollment and too many school buildings – and with paying 100 percent of retiree health benefits.
Business as usual simply is not an adequate response to the challenges that we all face in the current economy.