Teachers vote on  

Furlough Days

A proposal is made about a five-day shorter school year

in LAUSD schools, which will be decided by votes.

                 

                  A proposal by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to shorten the school year by five days is creating panic among educators. Teachers rejected LAUSD pay cuts for furlough days, which is an absence of students in the school. Many students don't know this, but this can be harming their education. Though teachers have a saying in this. Mr. Ramirez, a teacher at South East High School said, "My vote would be yes to save money and to save teachers from losing their jobs." But he also said, "I am not happy about this because we lose ten days of education which is a disadvantage, though I like the fact that this will save jobs " So as you can see, this decision is very difficult to come up with.

Teachers voting will take place starting on April 7-9 before school and during lunch in Mr. Islas classroom. If this proposal passes, California would save $1.1 billion for when California faces a budget crisis. Teachers will also lose an estimated 2.5% of their salary. The proposal would save more than 2,000 school employee jobs. South East High School’s schedule is a 4x4 block schedule, students will end up losing a lot of education rather than just losing five days of school.

            District officials said other cuts would remain in place because of the deficit. The elimination of summer school, reductions in bus services, cuts to arts programs and positions in the districts central offices would happen because of these budget problems.

            Teachers have voted and the furlough days have passed. This situation is not only happening to SEHS, it is happening to all LAUSD schools. Roughly 600,000 students will be affected.

            Students should not be happy about this, because it’s going to affect their education, and they are not getting all of it, that they should receive. The student’s education has been already been affected by the budget cuts, and it does not seem to stop.