California and Sacramento-area teachers took pay hits last year
dlambert@sacbee.com
PUBLISHED WEDNESDAY, JAN. 04, 2012
School districts across California slashed teacher payrolls by historic amounts last school year, cutting 15,000 teachers and $1 billion from their budgets, according to a Bee review of new state data.
The roughly 5.5 percent statewide reduction in teaching payroll eclipsed the 3 percent cut the prior year.
"This $1 billion comes on top of years of cuts," said Eric Heins, vice president of the California Teachers Association, the state's largest teachers union. "Overall, we have lost 40,000