Report: Pink-slipping costs $706 per teacher
Three in four California teachers who get an initial layoff warning are rehired, the Legislative Analyst’s Office says
Too many teachers in California receive preliminary layoff notices each spring as school districts plan for worst-case budget-cutting scenarios, a time-intensive process that carries a hefty $706 price tag per notified educator, according to an independent review from the state's Legislative Analyst's Office.
An estimated 75 percent of teachers who are pink-slipped by the state's mandated March 15 deadline are rehired by summer, according to the nonpartisan state report, released Thursday.
April Stone, a laid-off second-grade teacher from Vista del Mar Elementary School, receives a hug from a friend in this 2010 file photo. She was part of a group of six teachers from the San Clemente school who were getting together regularly for dinner to support one another, after all six were laid off in 2009.
TEXT BY SCOTT MARTINDALE, FILE PHOTO: MIKE GOULDING, THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
But between March and June, districts spend an estimated $706 per teacher to prepare paperwork, formally notify the educator and hold appeals hearings. With more than 20,000 pink-slips issued to California educators last year, that translated to a cost of about $14 million statewide, the report concluded.
"It's what every superintendent and school board member have been saying for years," said Orange County schools Superintendent William