We should be livid
Our country has been in a recession for some time now. Administrators are forced to choose between supplies and personnel. They are forced to make decisions which will affect our children. They are given the ability to frame the way our children learn and are taught. This power does not start in colleges and universities, but can be readily seen at the elementary and even preschool levels.
How is it that this power has lent itself to a complete inability to manage our state's school system? Why is it that in this economy, during this recession, teachers are being laid off even when their respective schools have "emergency" or "rainy-day" funds the superintendents and school boards are completely unwilling to tap into? What is the philosophy behind this train of thought? What constitutes an emergency if not a recession, borderline depression?
How do the administrators rationalize this decision when some of their schools are already in state-mandated program improvement and are on the verge of being handed over to the state government?
Parents, students and teachers should be livid. They should be asking for an explanation of this reasoning and demanding something be done about it. These administrators are not only playing with the lives of the teachers, who are being let go, but also toying with the lives of the children whom this is affecting. This is not only unfair, but unreasonable in a state whose children are already suffering academically.
LAURA GRIJALVA
Bakersfield
