Manatee teachers get hit hard with cuts. Broward County to lay off about 1400 teachers.

[madfloridian]

Those are only a couple of examples of the cuts coming to Florida schools. The legislature is totally in the GOP hands, and Rick Scott is ruthless.

Manatee teachers take brunt of proposed budget cuts

Eliminating elementary school extracurricular activities teachers is just one of the proposed cuts. That cut affects about 35 teaching jobs in Manatee County. Eliminating those positions increases the total job cuts submitted to board members beyond 50. Teachers’ aides will run those classes, district officials say.

Teachers' aides are quite capable, but do they have the qualifications to take over classes? Have requirements changed that much?

Other job cuts include a school psychologist, a social worker, secretaries, a construction services team, nine maintenance jobs and all the elementary school resource officers. Maintenance departments will be outsourced.

Each school principal must cut from their respective budgets. Elementary schools must eliminate $42,000 or $84,000 from their operational budgets, depending upon which plan is accepted. Middle schools face losing either $110,000 or $220,000. And high schools will lose either $88,000 or $176,000.

..."Employees also face two to 10 furlough days. Hospital home-bound students will no longer be guaranteed rides. The media budget will be cut $250,000 to $500,000, depending upon which plan is accepted. And teachers will bear the brunt of ongoing changes that will impact salaries.

Outsourcing maintenance jobs does not save money. In fact in many cases the cost goes higher.

In Broward County many teachers are being laid off.

Parents, students in Pembroke Pines protest Broward teacher cuts

They are even getting around to one who has taught longer and with Master's degrees.

About 200 parents, students and educators in Pembroke Pines on Friday staged what they said will be the first of many protests against plans to fire about 1,400 Broward teachers. Carrying signs and blowing horns, the protesters stood at the busy intersection of Pines Boulevard and 155th Avenue for several hours while motorists honked their car horns in support.

Most of the demonstrators were parents and students from nearby Silver Palms Elementary, where 10 teachers are on the chopping block.

"This hurts. This really hurts," said Luz Marina Ucros, whose daughter, Karina is a fifth-grader at the school. "Losing these teachers is like losing part of our family."

The protest came after news this week that the Broward County School District is giving pink slips to about 1,400 teachers as it struggles with a $144 million budget shortfall. Teachers losing their jobs are primarily first- and second-year teachers who don't have continuing contracts.But on Friday, Silver Palms kindergarten teacher Heather Castillo, who holds a master's degree, said she has already been notified that she's being laid off, and she's been teaching for six years.

In 2008 Florida ranked 50th in education funding. I think I heard somewhere that we were 49th now, but I am sure that will go down again under Rick Scott's management.

Florida ranks 50th in nation in education funding; local districts foot much larger portion

Florida confirmed its reputation as a state that's cheap when it comes to funding education in a new report released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week.

Out of 50 states and the District of Columbia, Florida ranked second to last in spending compared to relative wealth.

For every $1,000 of residents' personal income, Florida spends $33.51 compared with the U.S. average of $43.34. Comparably poor Georgia ranks 13th, spending $48.21 per every $1,000.

[Angry Dragon]

1. Perhaps it would just be cheaper to eliminate all schools and

just start training them to fight the wars we will be in around the world
and train them for the munitions factories

[yellowcanine]

14. Or maybe just shorten the school year by about 4 weeks. See how long it takes to get people to rise

up and insist that the schools be funded properly, even if it means "gasp!" raising taxes a bit.

[jberryhill]

2. What do they teach manatees? Stay away from propellers?

[yellowcanine]

12. Heh. Is our manatees learning?

[CarmanK]

3. SCOTT's brutal, ruthless path to PRIVATIZATION OF SCHOOLS

It is just the beginning folks. Super thief in chief has plans to privatize FL education and to make his friends rich. If he cripples enough schools, he can justify his plan to privatize and you can bet taxpayers will pay a very high price for the new services. In addition, the state loses of the curriculum. FL already has a high school which awards a diploma after receiving $399.00 and 8 days of testing/learning. If our democracy survives this onslaught of attacks on our liberty and the lives of our children, it will take a long time to recover. A day, a year can a be a lifetime in the life of a child. Each day is a lesson in life and the lessons learned in FL, sounds like people don't matter, but profit does. the state will fail to prepare its children to face the future, actually, what is happening in the republican party today, is a testament to the fact that parents and schools have failed so many US citizens. How can a country with a reputation for fairness and justice have gotten so far off the path. The boomers are really failing to leave the next generation a better world and I grieve for them every day. Haven't given up though. As long as I have life, I will try, but King Grover Norquist and his tparty minions are sure making a lot of noise and gaining ground each day.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Setting the stage for privatization.

1. Fire teachers
2. Larger class sizes (35-40+ kids to one teacher or aide)
3. Diluted teaching
4. Low scores standardized tests
5. Rx: Charter schools or corporations taking over the schools like NJ

[dkf]

4. What is the impact on the kids? Why isn't this the main thrust of the story?

[proud2BlibKansan]

7. WTF do you think the impact is? Does it need to be spelled out for you??

Here it is: the kids are S C R E W E D.

Is that clear enough for you?

[dkf]

16. Because it's better PR.

Teachers really have no idea how to move public opinion. They always start the story with their trials and tribulations but really if they start with impact on the kids they will be fighters for others, not their own interests.

I just think you all are going about it bassackwards as they say.

[sulphurdunn]

17. Please try to understand this:

The welfare of schools and communities is inseparable. The welfare of teachers is welded to the welfare of students to the extent that schools, students and communities influence and depend upon one another. The entire school reform movement is predicated upon insisting that these groups are mutually independent. That is false.

[madfloridian]

19. Good post.

But likely falling on deaf ears.

[chervilant]

11. hmph

And, sanctimonious, misleading detractions are SUCH a big help for our children, right?

(on edit: I think I've seen you respond in much the same fashion to previous post(s) by madfloridian. Mad is decrying the corporate megalomaniacs' assault on public education, and has devoted much time and energy to documenting this assault. What is YOUR point? Do you honestly believe this in NOT happening? BTW, asserting that Mad doesn't care about our children is a big red herring that only the egregiously uninformed will swallow...)

[eilen]

6. Aren't all teachers required to hold Masters Degrees? nt

[proud2BlibKansan]

8. I wish.

But no.

[madfloridian]

10. Soon after I retired, our county was letting associate degrees start as teachers..

then promise to go on get their full degree. No, masters were not required. Now Arne et al are saying that there should be no extra pay for advanced degrees.

In other words they were letting substitute teachers take over classrooms because it was cheaper. I don't know if that is still the case, but it probably is.

[eilen]

20. Associate degrees? Are you serious?

Wow. That is some really messed up shit.

No premium for advanced degree in your field? They obviously wish to deprofessionalize teaching.

[sulphurdunn]

22. There are about 90,000

public schools in roughly 15,000 school districts in the US. They are not all alike. In my district all teachers must have an undergraduate degree in the subject area they teach. Forty percent have advanced degrees in a content area and ten percent of those have advanced degrees in more than one content area. Teachers with advanced degrees are paid more.

The district is the way it is because the community pays to have it this way, although we too are under assault from state and local budget cutters, and things are beginning to change for the worse.

[RebelOne]

24. No. My daughter is a teacher in South Florida

and she only has a bachelors degree.

[Dappleganger]

9. Just five more years...

until our youngest is finished with school. Having watched the changes here in the past decade, it scares me to death how much more quickly our descent into the abyss will be hastened by Gov. Voldemort and his cronies. Our county is one of the top-performing in the state but our superintendent can only hold us steady for so long and with just so many resources being taken away, he is at a loss. I truly fear for the future of our children, especially those who don't have strong parental support to try and make up for the loss. :(

[JCMach1]

13. what an insane bloodbath

[bluevoter4life]

15. And my colleagues wonder why

I want to settle down elsewhere. Florida is the absolute last place I would want to raise my kids in for this very reason. This is criminal what is being done to the education system. On the same token though, I'd love to find out who ranks 51st in education.

[piratefish08]

18. I demand equality for the Narwhals.

[Knight Hawk]

21. As someone who lives in

Manatee county and has put four chldren through Florida schools ,I can tell you one of the biggest problems down here.We have a very large retiree population from up north and they just simply do not want to spend tax dollars to educate children who are not their grandchildren.There are other problems but this one has been with us for years.

[RebelOne]

23. My daughter lives in Broward, but teaches at a charter

school in Dade. I hope these layoffs don't spread to Dade.