We will be seeing a lot of this in the weeks to come:
The Maine Township High School District 207 school board Monday night dismissed five tenured teachers from Maine South and West high schools.
The five – three physical education teachers, a librarian and an applied arts teacher – are part of the 75 certified teachers laid off last month in order to save the school district $5 million. The remaining 70 are nontenured teachers.
The layoffs, which are effective at the end of this school year, are part of $15 million in cuts made last month to plug a projected $19 million deficit in 2010-11 budget.
Have you told the governor yet that Illinois needs a tax increase because our state can’t afford to reduce education quality? Have you watched this video that explains how you can give input to Gov. Quinn on the budget, then have you gone to the governor’s Website to post your comments? (That last point is important. Feel free to share your comments to the governor on the IEA Website but FIRST, post them to the governor’s Website)
Public education-basher Dennis Byrne in the Tribune claims that the sentiment on the budget Website is anti-tax increase. Frankly, that’s hard to say because the Website is not that easy to navigate, but the key points are these:
- Illinois also needs to continue to provide needed services to the poor the sick and the elderly. We can’t cut our way out of a $13 billion hole.
- To have a healthy state economy, Illinois needs a strong public education system at all levels; Pre-K, K-12, higher education and adult education.
- A balanced approach, of cuts and tax hikes, is needed to fix the state budget.
Let the governor know how you feel. Do it now.