My Voice in the Press

(Bruce Robinson)

Yesterday I got a phone call from Bruce Robinson at KRCB radio (Click here to listen- Airing Friday, May 21st broadcast)in Santa Rosa. He interviewed me as the President and chief spokesperson of the West Sonoma County Teachers Association. He first interview Keller, our superintendent, then me. He started with a question about our "free day" tomorrow. It is a more complicated question than it appears at first glance. Our teachers voted last year to work a day without pay as a contribution toward balancing the school budget. This year at negotiations both the superintendent and our teacher's association agree to have this day specifically to demonstrate the problem of budget cuts. The day because a day "off" to help balance the budget as opposed to a day when teachers worked for free.

Bruce asked if teachers liked the idea. I said that teachers don't like the idea of their pay being cut. In fact we have negotiated for both this year and next five fewer days to work. It amounts to a pay cut of 5.5% for next year and the year after. I also brought up the fact that with increased work loads because of bigger class sizes teachers are working harder than ever. At the same time few days means that teachers must teach the proscribed state mandated curriculum in less time. He then asked if students like it. I said that I am sure that students like a day off, but I am not so sure that their parents like it.

He asked if I saw education in California getting better in two or two and half years. I said that I didn't see that coming and it was one of the reasons that I decided to retire so early. I said that there were political forces out there out to destroy public education in California. Of course after the interview I think of all the things that I could have said. I could have told him that we have seen a progressive rollback in funds to education until now. In 1978 when I arrived in California, Proposition 13 that cut property taxes, was passed. California had a model school system at that time: kindergarten through University. In K-12 California is 48th or 49th. Mississippi generally fares worse.

A week ago our local paper, the Sonoma West Times and News, interviewed the superintendent, a representative from clerical union and myself. The story at first blush was to be about the cooperative way that the unions pitched in to help relieve the budget crisis. The downside, of course, is the severity of the budget crisis. Since our district opened the books for us this year, we saw that there indeed was a severe deficit. Everyone including administrators took a cut to relieve this crisis.