Education Coalition delivers pink slips to governor’s doorstep 

Demonstrating just how the governor’s attack on school funding would hurt California children and schools, the California School Boards Association led members of the Education Coalition to deliver stacks of pink letters and petitions to the governor’s office on the same day hundreds of teachers received their own pink slips warning that they could be laid off next year.

The March 15 morning press conference convened by CSBA came on the statutory deadline for school districts to notify hundreds of teachers, counselors, librarians and nurses that deep cuts in state funding – exacerbated by the governor’s broken promise to schools – may cost them their jobs.

“I think it’s very clear what March 15 represents for those of us who believe that public education is one of the most important components of a free and democratic society,” said Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez.

With tall piles of pink-slip letters and petitions signed by more than 2,000 school board members, teachers and school administrators, CSBA representatives and other members of the Education Coalition stood on the Capitol steps to urge the governor to keep his word and protect Proposition 98.

CSBA Executive Director Scott P. Plotkin said that, unlike the governor, school supporters do not have the resources to stage elaborate press events. “Instead, we are having this event in front of the people’s house,” he said.

That’s an appropriate venue, Plotkin said, because it was the people of California who voted for Proposition 98 to guarantee minimum funding levels for the state’s K-14 schools. At the conclusion of the press conference, the Education Coalition delegation swept into the state Capitol with dozens of television cameras and news reporters in tow. But the governor’s aides turned education leaders away at the office door, sending the crowd to the mail room where staff finally accepted the pink stacks of letters as cameras filmed the scene.

CSBA President Dr. Kerry Clegg said the governor’s budget proposals to “eviscerate what’s left of Proposition 98,” will “make a bad situation even worse.”

Plotkin said the education community had trusted the governor. “It’s still a shock to recall that just a year ago the education community was celebrating an agreement with the governor, who promised to protect schools from future deep cuts and to support Proposition 98,” he said.

California State PTA Vice President for Education Jo Loss, a school board member in the Castro Valley Unified School District, said public education is at a crossroads. It’s imperative, she said, that the governor rethink his budget proposals.

“He’s breaking his word, even though state revenues are higher than when the agreement [between the governor and the Education Coalition] was made,” she said. “The governor must keep his promise.”

The costs of the governor’s broken promise to education are already mounting, with more than 1,000 certificated employees receiving layoff warnings this week. School boards up and down the state are faced with the prospect of school closures; cutting music, art and sports programs and eliminating other important direct student services.

The March 15 deadline does not apply to the classified employees who work as custodians, secretaries, cooks and groundskeepers. But it’s clear that the governor’s budget proposals would also mean layoffs for thousands of school employees who supervise playgrounds, work as classroom aides, fix leaky roofs and work in the front office.

Dozens of CSBA member districts have responded to an association request for specific examples of how the proposed cuts are hitting home.

“Hayward sent layoff notices to 150 teachers, Castaic Unified School District sent notices to 13,” Nuñez said. “More than 45 teachers in Fresno received layoff notices. Rancho Cucamonga is laying off 9 teachers, and Salinas is cutting between 100 and 140. This is not the way we say ‘thank you’ to our teachers for their hard work.”

The Education Coalition’s Capitol pink-slip press conference was part of a widening public information and advocacy campaign to let voters know the real costs of the governor’s budget proposals and broken promise to education. On March 16, education advocates joined nurses, fire fighters and others concerned about the impact of the governor’s budget-cut proposals, in a protest outside the Westin Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles, where the governor hosted a gala for deep-pocket donors.

In addition, Education Coalition members are testifying at press briefings and town hall meetings throughout the state, meeting with local editorial boards and organizing grassroots advocacy campaigns to inform parents and other voters of the potentially devastating impacts of the governor’s assault on education and Proposition 98.

And the California Teachers Association, which earlier this year ran radio ads critical of the governor’s failure to keep his promise to education, is now airing a series of television spots all across the state.

CSBA has prepared a detailed advocacy and information package of sample op/ed pieces, school board resolutions and letters-to-the-editor to help local school boards get the word out to their communities about the potentially devastating impacts of the governor’s budget proposals. CSBA has sent these packets to board presidents and superintendents in member districts, along with instructions for accessing CSBA’s password-protectede.

The association urges every school board and county board of education in the state to adopt resolutions in support of preserving Proposition 98 guarantees to schools. “If there was ever a time to adopt these resolutions, now’s the time,” said Mina Fasulo, CSBA Assistant Executive Director for Communications.