Teachers fight to save jobs and programs
Written by: | 10 Apr 2009
The current economic conditions seem to be affecting everyone and everything and education is no exception.
Arizona’s education system is facing sizable budget cuts with the state legislature’s decision to cut $133 million from K-12 education and another $142 million from state universities for 2008-09, according to abc15.com.
The budget for next year hasn’t been determined yet but it’s expected to afford substantially less money to education. There’s a lot of anxiety surrounding how extensive the changes will be.
“The 2009-10 state budget… may total as much as $891 million in additional cuts to K-12 public education funding,” says Prescott Unified School District (PUSD) Superintendant Kevin Kapp in an update on prescottschools.com. “Districts throughout the state are being asked by the legislature to plan for cuts that could amount to up to 18-20 percent of their total budgets because the state budget deficit could exceed $3 billion.”
“We don’t anticipate that we’ll have the same money available next year as we have this year to run our district,” says Dr. Chris Reynolds, PUSD assistant superintendent for Human Resources.
$2-$3 million in State cuts expected
According to Kapp’s update, PUSD has reduced approximately $500,000 from the 2008-09 budget and “is expecting to make between $2 and $3 million dollars in cuts for next year.”
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of fear,” says Charles Menken, a teacher at Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy.
“[The state legislature] hasn’t started nailing down all the different things that will happen,” he explains, but “programs across the district could be affected, from physical education to the arts.”
P.E. and the arts
“Every program and every position in the district is being reviewed,” says Reynolds. “Some programs may be eliminated, others may be severely reduced.” This would affect everyone from teachers to parents to students.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty and a lot of fear.”
The removal of programs is just one of the many possible effects of the budget cuts, which could lead to even more drastic measures like shutting down smaller schools like Northpoint, removing full day or early Kindergarten, or going to a four-day work schedule.
“Arizona has a policy of immediately targeting education when it needs to cut the budget,” says Melissa Wagoner, another teacher at Northpoint, “because education takes up the majority of the state budget.”
Education cuts outside AZ
However, the economy’s effect on education isn’t just happening in Arizona. “Right now, most states are struggling with the budget [like]hiring freezes in Clark County [Nevada], the largest and fastest growing school district in America, furloughs in Oregon, program cuts in Arizona…” says Wagoner.
One of the major effects on teachers across the state of Arizona is the decision to send Reduction in Force (RIF) letters to all school employees hired in the last two or three years. Menken has been in the district for six years so he won’t be receiving a letter, but he says “there’s a lot of stress for a lot of teachers.”
RIF letters go out
The RIF letters mean any school employee hired after July 1, 2006 or 2007, will lose their job, although they may be able to get it back. The RIF letters are basically saying to teachers that the district is “unable to renew your contract,” Menken explains. Once employees are sent RIF notices, the district will start to hire back as many as the budget allows, starting by seniority and working its way forward.
“We’re operating under state law that requires us to notify teachers by April 15,” says Reynolds. According to him they’re expecting to send out as many as 260 RIF letters.
“PUSD uses the RIF to protect itself from over-budgeting,” says Wagoner. She explains: “The district can only spend the money given to it. When school districts over-budget, no one gets paid. So PUSD uses the RIF to only staff the positions it can pay…the district says that they expect to rehire most of the teachers who are RIFed, but they wouldn’t RIF …on a whim.”
“A three year RIF is unusual and severe,” adds Wagoner. “This is very serious.”
Decisions still pending as of press time leaned toward a two, rather than three year RIF, which would reduce the total number of RIFed employees.
While Wagoner has been in the district long enough that she won’t be receiving a RIF notice, she understands that it’s going to be difficult for a lot of people. “Leaving a job you love is devastating,” she says “Teachers in general are extremely dedicated to their work.”
AZ ranked last in per pupil funding
Arizona is already ranked near the bottom in terms of per pupil funding. “Funding in Arizona and PUSD in particular, was already atrocious before the economic crisis,” says Wagoner.
The state ranks 49 out of 50 for per pupil funding and over the past 20 years spending has actually decreased just under one percent per student, while it has risen over 36 percent nationally, according to prescottschools.com. For the 2006-07 school year Arizona spent an average of $6,248 per student, less than two-thirds of the national average of $9,963.
Reynolds says PUSD and others have been meeting to determine what they can do and what has to be reduced. “We’re coming up with recommendations on how we can trim [spending],” he says, depending on what the budget for the next year is. They plan to present their recommendations to the Governing Board in mid-April and once they get their endorsement, “then we’ll implement those decisions based on our budget restraints,” says Reynolds.
The difficulty is, without a budget from the Arizona state legislature, it’s hard for people to know exactly what they’ll have to work with next year.
Waiting on the State
“We’re waiting for the state legislature [to tell us the budget],” Reynolds says, “that will determine how many people will be able to return to work.” The sooner they have a budget the better, but that could be as late as June. “I think it is extremely unfair for the Arizona Legislature to even think about asking for a delay on the funding decisions, which delay the district decisions about the RIF, until June,” says Wagoner. “How is it ethical to ask so many people to just wait and see how it turns out?” she asks.
While there’s a lot of uncertainty and fear involved, one thing’s for sure: it’s a difficult time and education is an area that’s likely going to suffer. “These are incredibly challenging times for us as a district,” says Reynolds, “…we hope we’ll be able to ride it out.”
Photos by: Ted Hosey
Leave your response!