The Providence, RI, School Board voted tonight to send layoff notices to every teacher in the school district, approving a plan about which I posted earlier, Providence Teachers Union Head Compares Layoff Notices To Pearl Harbor Attack.
The notices are required to be sent by March 1 under state law, for the next school year. The school district does not know how many teachers actually will be laid off, but complied with the deadline to give it flexibility in dealing with a massive budget deficit.
As reported by The Providence Journal:
After a raucous discussion, the Providence School Board Thursday night voted 4-3 to send letters of termination to the 1,926 teachers in the city’s school district.
More than 700 teachers jammed the high school gymnasium to tell school officials that their hearts were broken, their trust violated and their futures as teachers jeopardized.
“How do we feel? Disrespected,” said Julie Letessa, a special needs teacher. “We are broken. How do you repair the damage you have down today?”
Every one of the district’s teachers received a certified letter from the school department Thursday informing them that they might be terminated at the end of the school year. It also said that the School Board would vote on the proposed dismissals at Thursday’s meeting, which was moved to the career and technical high school to accommodate the huge turnout.
The head of the Providence teachers union calls the move a “back-door Wisconsin.”
http://vp.mgnetwork.net/viewer.swf?u=6a9fae5291c6102ea6fd001ec92a4a0d&z=JAR&embed_player=1
Rhode Island may be the next Wisconsin, indeed, except that labor unions — which all but control the state legislature — have much greater power and Rhode Island is overwhelmingly Democratic.
For a comparison of Rhode Island’s fiscal problems with those in Wisconsinc, consider these statistics:
In Wisconsin, the projected deficit for fiscal year 2012 is considerably higher than Rhode Island’s—$1.8 billion compared to $290 million, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. But when the deficit is viewed as a percent of their respective 2011 budgets, the two states are closer. In Wisconsin, the 2012 deficit equals 12.8 percent of what is being spent in the current year. In Rhode Island, the deficit is 9.9 percent.
When it comes to unfunded pension liabilities, however, Rhode Island is actually worse off than Wisconsin. The Badger State has an unfunded pension liability in the millions, while Rhode Island’s liability is in the billions—$252.6 million versus $4.3 billion, according to the Pew Center on the States. The center rates Wisconsin’s state pension system as a “solid performer” while Rhode Island is labeled as having “serious concerns.”
The finances of the City of Providence are a particular problem, and the City’s finances are being monitored under a newly created state mechanism which could — as happened with the City of Central Falls — lead to a type of receivorship in which the state would take over city finances:
For months, the city’s financial condition has been labeled everything from “concerning” to “a crisis,” but Governor Chafee and his staff say full intervention by the state is not necessary.
The state is helping the city, at Mayor Angel Taveras’ request.
Chafee is “aware of the severity of the challenges facing the city” and is committed to “provide advice and technical assistance,” said Michael Trainor, Chafee’s spokesman.
That is less than what the state did in other distressed communities — Woonsocket, Pawtucket and North Providence — in 2010. It is also different from assigning an overseer, the first step in Rhode Island’s receivership act.
David Cicilline, the prior Mayor of Providence who left the City in such bad shape, was elected to Congress in November, filling the seat previously held by Patrick Kennedy.
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Comments
With the way things look at the Front Door, the Back Door may be a little easier.
I'm half-surprised the crowd of teachers did not fall upon them and beat them to death. They are nearly that crazed these days.
Did they have to fire everyone so they can selectively hire back only the good teachers?
If I was a teacher I'd be looking to teach someplace else where the budget crisis wasn't as bad. It does suck to be fired, and to worry every year if you'll be booted out the next.
I'm afraid that what is going to be left in Providence are just the really bad teachers who CAN'T work anywhere else.
It's both sad and disturbing to see unionized teachers so bitterly clinging to their corrupt work rules and bloated benefits.
Stay tuned for California's budget "process."
Previously on "Forward," teachers lie about their health but shout loud and long. Doctors lie to cover the teacher sick leave lie. Democrat legislators collude and conspire to flee the state and their constituents' trust.
In the mean time, voters nee taxpayers, is home schooling looking any better?
No Marx, Freud or Darwin. No climate change or deviant sex propaganda. If the teachers aren't there, then there should be no bureacracy to support them. No exposure to the statistically undeniable presence of abusers who may be arrested yet access to tort remedy due to sovereign immunity is out of reach?
Pass the popcorn and wait for the new twist in the Golden State where the Democrat Party is holding the party and the bag.
Thank you, Professor.
@CG, if I was trying to do something about a 40M budget deficit, I certainly wouldn't want to be tied to bringing back very senior [and expensive] teachers who were lousy just because a union contract said I had to.
That might help the budget, marginally, but damage the school even further.
I did have to love the dimwittedness of the teacher comments in the Journal story.
A "quasi-legal power grab"? Looks totally legal to me.
If, of course, their hearts are all that broken, then perhaps they should do all and sundry a favor… and quit right now.
I'm fairly sure other, cheaper teaching staff will be along behind them, directly.
@CG: Those of us in the private sector don't have to worry about our jobs annually like teachers do. We have to worry about them daily. Especially now.
Did they have to fire everyone so they can selectively hire back only the good teachers?-CG
Nobody got fired. Prof. Jacobson was unclear, that's all. He explains it better in his earlier article on this topic (linked near the beginning of this article).
Because state law requires notice by March 1 to teachers who face layoffs for the following school year, if the school district misses the deadline, it will lose the ability to reduce staff.-Prof. Jacobson, Insurrectionist
All that happened is that a notice that there might be a layoff next school year was sent to teachers. You may now stop panicking.
Laughably, this super-advanced notice requirement was passed by the usual felonious do-gooder goo-goos with the (claimed) intention of helping people. There's no record kept of how many who've been helped had heart attacks upon misreading the notice!
Frankly, since the passage of such a silly law I've wondered why every employer doesn't issue such a notice to every employee on, oh, at least a quarterly basis.
Teachers are the new scapegoat. They are all lazy, greedy, and don't do their job. Parents have no influence in a child's education…only teachers. So if kids aren't learning it it only the teacher's fault.
I would encourage NO ONE to go into teaching these days….absolutely no respect for teachers anymore.
CG-they fired all the teachers so they can hire back the CHEAPEST teachers. I will bet they do not hire back the most experienced and most expensive teachers, EVEN WHEN they are the best. It's all about money, my friend. NOT the children.
n said, "Teachers are the new scapegoat. They are all lazy, greedy, and don't do their job. Parents have no influence in a child's education…only teachers. So if kids aren't learning it it only the teacher's fault."
Especially the really evil ones who smoke or the moderately evil ones who just share a household with an evil smoker to kill our children with third hand smoke.
http://tobaccoanalysis.blogspot.com/2009/01/author-of-thirdhand-smoke-study-warns.html
(FYI, Dr Michael Siegel was and very much still is an avowed "tobacco control" advocate. He's just sick and tired of the greed and lies corrupting his movement and started speaking out against it.)
Don't worry about the miniscule levels of lead "contamination" though. The EPA is taking care of that with their new lead emissions standard from 1.5 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3), to 0.15 μg/m3
http://www.epa.gov/oaqps001/lead/actions.html
Perhaps that's the new Obama job creating agenda. Drive out business and replace with government run monitoring facilities. We'll be 'greener' but we won't make a damn thing.
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/article_54400025-2940-5b3f-b753-6e931e596cac.html