by Alex Galbraith
A nationwide wave of layoffs in public schools is expected in coming weeks, placing 150,000 to 300,000 education jobs in jeopardy, with Hispanic teachers and students more likely than others to feel the sting.
With midterm elections threatening Democratic control in both the House and Senate, legislative relief action stalled May 27. So far, a bailout bill to aid school districts that are most affected has received only mild support from the White House.
The bill, sponsored by long-time education advocate Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), will extend federal funding for school personnel whose salaries were subsidized by stimulus funding passed Feb. 13. 2009. It will expire at the end of this school year.
Federal money accounts for 10.5 percent of the $1.1 trillion spent on elementary and secondary education this year. U.S. Department of Education spokesperson Sandra Abrevaya says that while no formal deadline has been set for an additional stimulus package, she expects one to pass in June. “We need to act with a real sense of urgency,” she told Hispanic Link News Service, adding that if schools don’t find ways to keep teachers in the classroom, the results can be devastating.
Arts, afterschool care, physical education summer school and other activities which are considered beneficial to Hispanics are included among programs likely to be cut from underfunded schools.
Hispanic activists cite the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second largest district whose enrollment of 617,000 is 75 percent Hispanic, as an example of what can happen to a system in crisis.
Over the last few years, massive LAUSD budget cuts have caused a sharp increase in pink slips. Latino education advocates maintain that the layoffs are not adequately balanced between district schools in the richer and poorer communities.
LAUSD spokeswoman Lydia Ramos explains that inner-city schools, with greater percentages of Hispanics and blacks in their administrative and classroom ranks and a higher concentration of young teachers, experience higher personnel turnover rates.
California law states that all personnel layoffs must be based on senior-ity. Long-standing “last hired, fi rst fi red” contract provisions protect veteran teachers from dismissal. This creates a buffer from layoffs for schools in suburban neighborhoods with lower turnover while leaving inner-city schools, predominantly attended by Hispanic and Afri-can-American students, targeted.
In more affluent West Los Angeles, most schools have lost 10 percent or fewer of their credentialed teachers. Meanwhile, half of the credentialed teach-ers at urban Markham Middle School, which is 71 percent Hispanic, have been laid off. Only 64 percent of Markham’s re-maining teachers are fully credentialed, a figure 31 percent lower than the state average. “It’s un-fortunate what’s happen-ing to these schools, but until the law is changed, this is how it has to be done,” Ramos says.
If the projected 26,000 California teachers are laid off, the Hispanic teacher will become an increas-ingly rare individual.
“The ‘last hired, first fired’ category is where we see the bulk of people of color,” says David Hernández, a community outreach specialist with the California Teachers’ Association, adding that the lack of Hispanic role models in teaching posi-tions is harmful for the development of Hispanic youths.
One education official characterized the situa-tion as “grim and getting grimmer.” SB 995, a bill to allow schools to retain non-veteran teachers based on performance, has been proposed in the California Senate. It is supported by Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneg-ger. Hispanic Link.
