A day after the Hollister School District announced that it will
lay off 37 teachers in an attempt to shore up its floundering
budget, teachers, administrators and parents hit the streets after
school let out Wednesday to spend the waning hours of the Day of
the Teacher protesting what they see as Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger’s attack on education funding throughout the
state.
Hollister – A day after the Hollister School District announced that it will lay off 37 teachers in an attempt to shore up its floundering budget, teachers, administrators and parents hit the streets after school let out Wednesday to spend the waning hours of the Day of the Teacher protesting what they see as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s attack on education funding throughout the state.
Established 23 years ago by the Legislature, California’s “Day of the Teacher” is usually a quiet affair celebrated in classrooms and community halls with little fanfare or controversy. This year, however, there were plans for nearly 50 rallies and demonstrations from San Diego to Yreka, including a local protest by parents and teachers throughout Hollister.
“I think what is happening in the capitol is crippling education throughout the state,” said HSD Trustee Dee Brown, who was demonstrating on the corner of Fourth and San Benito streets with other local educators. “Because the budget is so severely curtailed, we don’t have the funds that we need to cover the expenses we have.”
Although the governor has proposed increasing funding to schools next year by almost $3 billion, educators claim there’s an additional $2 billion the state owes schools that Schwarzenegger is using to fund other state programs.
Schwarzenegger is also pushing a ballot measure that could force a special election this fall reducing state education funds in the future if passed by voters.
Wearing T-shirts that read “Students are our special interest” more than 100 teachers, parents and administrators gathered in groups throughout the city, standing on the corners of San Benito and Fourth streets, San Benito Street and Nash Road and Nash Road and Airline Highway.
“Gov. Schwarzenegger wants to limit money going to education,” said Frances Sneddon, a first-grade teacher at Calaveras School who will find out this week if she is going to be laid off as part of district’s budget cuts. “We’re in it to help the children. The governor is working against us in getting funding to educate children.”
Despite earlier cuts to fine arts programs and other expenditures such as district-provided cell phones, continued declining enrollments, student absenteeism, rising costs and less money from the state government forced the Hollister School District to announce they will lay off 37 teachers by next year school year in an attempt to hack about $2 million out of its nearly $40 million budget.
“We wouldn’t have the lay-offs and program cuts we’ve had,” if HSD received its share of the $2 billion in education funding that Schwarzenegger diverted to other programs, Brown said.
Hollister teachers weren’t alone in demonstrating Wednesday, members of the state’s largest teachers’ union, the California Teachers Association, organized after-school rallies and demonstrations in several dozen cities to oppose what they see as the governor’s failure to support public education and to attack teachers.
The events ranged from a celebratory affair honoring local teachers of the year outside the Capitol to union members handing out flyers with the heading “Why Are Teachers Angry?” at schools in Riverside County. In the San Francisco Bay area, teachers gathered on street corners near San Francisco City Hall and along El Camino Real, the historic road that links the state’s famed missions.
“This is our day when normally we would focus on the joys of teaching and learning, what we do and accomplish every day in our classrooms,” Barbara Kerr said Tuesday. Kerr is the president of the 335,000 member California Teachers Association. “Many events will be about honoring teachers, but there will also be an unprecedented number of activities about protecting our schools, and the fact that the governor has turned his back on the real needs of our students.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Luke Roney covers education and agriculture for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at [email protected].
