In schools in Alameda County and across the country, budget challenges continue to affect students in a negative way. New Haven Unified School District recently announced the first interim budget for 2010-11 along with projections that include more cuts to programs and services in 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Covering schools in Union City and Hayward, the New Haven district provided budget projections that included five furlough days for employees starting in 2011-12. The result would be a shorter school year for students and a shorter work year and smaller paychecks for all staff. In addition, class sizes would increase to 30-to-1 in kindergarten through third grade. For the 2010-11 school year class sizes were increased from 20-to-1 in first through third grades and in ninth grade, to 25-to-1. Transportation was eliminated for elementary school students and reduced for middle school students.

More students per classroom requires reducing the number of teachers.

“The budget challenge forces some tough choices about class size, music, transportation, etc.,” says Rick La Plante, Director, Parent & Community Relations for the New Haven district.

The district’s report says, “The immediate problem can be traced to the 2008-09 school year, when the state reduced funding from $6,121 per pupil to $5,640 per pupil. The District has instituted a freeze on non-essential expenditures. For instance, vacant positions will not be filled, overtime will be eliminated for classified employees, and consultant services and staff development activities will be affected.”

Another round of cuts in state funding, which is increasingly being predicted, could have devastating effects on classrooms and school sites throughout the state, says a new report released by EdSource, a non-profit organization based in Mountain View.

"For many districts, the need to make cuts--likely including layoffs--will continue. For districts that have already reduced their reserves and staffing levels drastically in recent years, few options remain.”

The report adds that about one in six of the state's more than 1,000 local education agencies have certified that they might not be able to meet their financial obligations within the next two years.

“California's state government controls about eighty percent of the revenues that school districts receive. That leaves K-12 education extremely vulnerable to recent volatility in state tax collections. Local property taxes are still a more stable revenue source, but they account for less than a quarter of total school revenues here.”  

Asked about other options to avoid further impacts to the classroom, La Plante mentions a parcel tax or local bonds to raise revenue for some of the things being cut.

The EdSource report, though, points out that of seventeen parcel tax elections held statewide in November 2010, just two met the two-thirds voter threshold needed for passage.

“One of the large impediments to raising parcel taxes is that they (taxpayers) don’t see the money trickling down to the classrooms – they see this big bite at the overhead level,” says Kevin Wood of S.E.R.V.E. Alameda, a grass-roots organization that provides guidance for parents to engage the school district’s policies and personnel.  “One of the problems is the number of highly paid administrators and the proportion of administrative costs of total budgets,” says Wood. Referencing research on the Alameda Unified School District, Wood says there are more than forty people who make at least $100,000.

EdSource’s report states that, “With personnel representing over 80% of the average district's operating costs, reducing staffing costs is almost inevitable.”

With the situation seemingly desperate, Visión Hispana asked why no one is discussing reductions in teachers’ or administrators’ salaries or benefits as a way to avoid teacher layoffs and reductions in programs and services for students.
“I would think that some people think that is a way to go,” says Brian Edwards, senior policy analyst with EdSource. “I don’t know of anyone focusing on that.”

New Haven’s La Plante says he feels teacher salaries are not in need of reform. He says he doesn’t know how his district ranks in teacher salaries compared to other districts in Alameda County. “We pay them very well – that’s a tradition in New Haven, he says proudly.

“I think that teachers are well paid given the number of days they work – they only work eight months out of the year,” says Wood, whose context about salary is rarely mentioned in budget debates on education. A teacher making a salary of $60,000 is earning a pay rate equivalent to an annual salary of $90,000.  

“In the public there is this perception that teachers are not well paid – I don’t believe that,” adds Wood. “Teachers are on par with police and police work many more hours per year and it is a risky job.”

Though Wood offered no comment on salary reductions, he did speak about continuing increases in teacher salaries: “The rate of teachers’ salary increase demanded by the powerful teachers’ union will become unsustainable - we shouldn’t just keep pumping money into it just because the unions demand it and we end up with more unfunded liabilities.”