OAKLAND — Eric Bankston, a corporate salesman-turned-physical education teacher, had a moment of doubt when a pink slip arrived in the mail last spring, informing him that his position at Pinole Middle School might be cut.
"It leaves you asking yourself, What do I do now?" he said.
With some encouragement from his colleagues, the answer came to him: He would go into special education. A year later, the 37-year-old Oakland resident is teaching at the same West Contra Costa County school with many of the same kids — just in a different field.
Bankston is part of a new, statewide push to bring pink-slipped general education teachers into special education, an area with chronic staffing shortages. On Wednesday, the California Teacher Corps announced that the state's alternative teacher certification programs would work with school districts to provide special education training to teachers subject to layoffs.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell touted the initiative as a way to counter "the chilling effect on our teacher pipeline" caused by the state budget crisis.
"It's a win for everybody," said Catherine Kearney, president of the teaching corps. "The teacher keeps the job, the