On Wednesday, Kristin Becker asked her first-graders at Success Academy in San Jose to compose a short essay about what they want to be when they graduate from college -- a goal she has now planted firmly in their heads.

Before the kids delivered their speeches Thursday, Becker gazed at her squirmy charges. There were a lot of missing front teeth in this room. "Yesterday, we decided what our dreams were," she said. "I know that if you work as hard as you did this year, when you graduate from college, you'll get to pick your job."

Then, 7-year-old Kimberly Bruno Gallegos bounced off the floor and softly told the class her dream was to be a teacher. Like Miss Becker.

But Friday is Kristin Becker's last day of school -- maybe forever.

She is one of 20 teachers who received pink slip notices in March from the Franklin-McKinley School District -- one of thousands of teachers across the state whose futures are tied to expected cutbacks to the state education