California districts could pursue teacher layoffs if new state budget cuts K-12 funding
CTA would lobby Legislature to block districts' from issuing pink slips
School districts may have another opportunity to lay off teachers, which they normally cannot do after mid-May, if the Legislature approves the budget cuts Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing.
If adopted next month, Newsom’s proposed 8 percent cut to districts’ general fund would activate a state law not used since the Great Recession. It would set in motion a layoff period through Aug. 15 for those districts that choose to use it.
Most districts probably wouldn’t; they and education leaders are arguing they will need more funding with more teachers, not fewer, to reopen schools to handle health risks, social distancing demands and students with learning deficits from months of school closures. However, some districts were already in perilous financial conditions heading into the next fiscal year, before Newsom proposed budget cuts last week, and might choose furloughs to avoid bankruptcy and a state takeover.
“August layoffs will be the absolute last option that many school districts would resort to,” said Michael Hulsizer, chief deputy for governmental affairs for the Kern County Superintendent of Schools. “But depending on the level of reserves and extent of the cuts, a district might have to look at this option.”
The California Teachers Association plans to ask the Legislature to suspend the provision in the Education Code setting the conditions for a mid-summer layoff. The Legislature has done that twice, in 2002-03 and 2011-12, in response to lobbying by the CTA. In other years during the Great Recession, the Legislature waited too long to pass a state budget for an August layoff to take effect.
“The state cannot add insult to injury by laying off any teachers at this moment in history when our students need to heal in a safe and secure learning environment,” CTA President E. Toby Boyd said in a statement. “Our students cannot endure another blow following this Coronavirus crisis.”
The CTA will ask the Legislature to extend the prohibition on layoffs to hourly or classified workers, who include bus drivers, janitors and teachers’ aides, said CTA spokeswoman Claudia Briggs. The statute on August layoffs applies only to teachers and administrators and districts currently have more latitude on when and how to lay off classified employees.
Newsom has not announced a position on suspending August layoffs. The CONTINUE READING: California districts could pursue teacher layoffs if new state budget cuts K-12 funding | EdSource