The recession hits close to home

Caroline was very upset when she came over for dinner a couple of nights ago. She had just come from a staff meeting at her Issaquah district school that outlined the procedures for the coming lay-off of teachers in view of Washington State's huge budget deficit. She is in her fourth year of teaching social studies to ninth graders.

There are around 1200 teachers in the district, and the RIF (Reduction In Force) line will be set somewhere between 800 and 900.  That means that if the RIF line is set at 900, all teachers with a number higher than 900 will be laid off. That's a reduction in force of 25% in a school district where enrollment is rising! The staff was informed that those teachers with numbers higher than the RIF line will have to vacate their classrooms on the last day of school, remove all their stuff, and turn in their keys and computers. The district realizes that unless class sizes become astronomical, they can't layoff 25-35% of the teachers, and that some will be hired back.  But that will only happen after the final budgets are set and all the teachers who are leaving due to normal attrition are identified.  Then some portion of the laid-off teachers can apply to get their old jobs back.  But they will get back jobs without their COLA raises, no raise in pay grade for National Board Certification (I'm not sure if I have the name right, but Caroline just went through the laborious process to get hers), and much larger classes (without the increase in pay for teaching classes of more than 30 students).

Washington has a reputation as a very liberal state, and therefore spends lots of money on K-12 education, right?  If that is your opinion, you would be not just wrong, but dead wrong. While I would be the last to argue a linear relation between school funding and student achievement, there is a link. In 2006 (the latest numbers I could easily find), the average per student spending in the US is $9,138. The highest is New York, at $14,884, the lowest is Utah  at $5,437. (I think Utah must be an outlier with a lot of home-schooling or Mormon church financed education or something) In any case, Washington spends $7,830 per student.  That's right in line with Alabama at $7,646 and Mississippi at $7,221!

Caroline has a seniority number of 892, so there's a very good chance that she will be cut in the initial round. She's an exceptional teacher (PTA Teacher of the Year last year) who works hard, has the gift, and loves her job. She's confident that she'll have a job next year, but the disillusionment is setting in. 

She is beginning to understand why so many good teachers get burned out and leave the profession.