Thousands of California teachers scheduled for layoffs.

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell and Members
of Education Coalition Announce Number
of Pink Slips Issued to Education Personnel

O'Connell Urges Passage of Parcel Tax Measure to Help Schools

SACRAMENTO – State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today joined with members of the California Teachers Association, California School Employees Association, California State PTA, California Association of School Administrators, and California County Superintendents Educational Services Association to announce nearly 22,000 teachers have received notices of potential layoffs.

"Effective teachers are the most essential element to student success," O'Connell said. "Our state budget crisis has forced districts to lay off thousands of teachers over the past few years. The Governor has proposed cutting another $2.4 billion from public education. While the education community opposes these cuts, our schools are forced to prepare for this potential outcome by issuing a massive wave of potential layoff notices. To date, 21,905 pink slips have been issued to teachers and other staff around the state this year. While I understand the Governor and the Legislature have tough decisions to make, these budget cuts are devastating our schools and impacting our ability to do the most important job in our society, that is, to teach our children."

State of California Schools: O'Connell

From Secretary O'Connell's State of the Schools address on Tues.

Now, I have just talked about things we have done and are doing. Yet, all of this amazing work has been accomplished under the dark cloud of a state budget disaster that has left our schools reeling. In just the last two budget years, $18 billion was cut from our schools. The Governor's current budget proposal would cut K-12 public education by another $2.4 billion, including cuts to the Class Size Reduction program, which I authored more than a decade ago. We already have seen class sizes increase across the state. School transportation and summer school programs have been canceled, and critical music, art, career technical education opportunities, and sports programs have been either scaled back or eliminated.

Thankfully, the $2.9 billion in federal stimulus funds from the Obama Administration threw a lifeline to our schools last year. The funds helped us avert even deeper cuts in services and personnel, make needed repairs to facilities, and advance high-quality preschool to help students and their families. Of course, this is one-time federal funding and if we do not find a way in California to appropriately invest in public education, we risk having to force our schools to further reduce instructional time, pack more kids into already crowded classrooms, permanently close libraries, lay off school nurses, and eliminate school transportation and sports programs, and make other draconian choices.

Is California ready for "Race to the Top"?

State Schools Chief Jack O'Connell
Comments on "Race to the Top"
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell today issued the following statement regarding President Obama's launching of the federal "Race to the Top" competition, which allows states to compete for $4.35 billion in education funds if they fulfill the competition's criteria.

"Without question, 'The Race for the Top' fund will be one of the boldest and farthest-reaching efforts to implement meaningful reform in our nation's schools in generations.

"The over-arching goals of the education community must be to increase student achievement and close achievement gaps, and I applaud the Obama Administration for making these two points a focus of their education reform efforts.

"While every one of our states is unique in the needs of its students, as a nation we must make a united commitment to a number of important, core philosophies, including increasing effective teaching, developing globally competitive standards and assessments, turning around low-performing schools and improving data systems to become continuous learning systems that guide decision making.

"As the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, I am wholly committed to ensuring that California is actively engaged in this national conversation. And so, I look forward to joining Governor Schwarzenegger and the State Board of Education in working with the President and U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to move forward this ambitious agenda for change.

"Of course, as with any push for significant change, there will be legitimate concerns. Certainly, these guidelines call for some hard decisions by California educators and policymakers, and while this is not an easy conversation to have, it is the right conversation to have.

"While I generally agree with the intent and the focus of the proposed guidelines, there also are some specific areas with which I disagree. Specifically, I would like to point out what I believe to be a misunderstanding about the law surrounding our data systems. California law does not prevent any school district from using the state's student assessment results for purposes of evaluation or compensation. It only prohibits the use of this data to evaluate individual teachers at the state level. This is simply a matter of local control that appropriately ensures school districts handle their own personnel decisions.

"Regardless of this disagreement or any others, I look forward to beginning this effort to effectively communicate our thoughts and any potential changes to the guidelines over the next month."

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Schools and the budget compromise

Schools Chief Jack O'Connell Issues Statement on Budget Deal
SACRAMENTO — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell issued the following statement today regarding the budget agreement struck by the Governor and the Legislative Leadership:

"I am glad to see that the Governor and Legislative leadership have reached an agreement that addresses our budget shortfall and resolves our cash-flow crisis, at least for this year. Sadly, the agreement includes $6.1 billion in cuts in Proposition 98 funding. This new massive reduction, which is added to the $11.6 billion in school funding cut just last February, will result in very real consequences for students. Larger class sizes, canceled summer school, a shorter school year, and no new textbooks are just a few of the painful results. I fully recognize that given the magnitude of our state fiscal crisis, the pain for schools could have been worse than that created by the agreement that was reached. I am pleased that the agreement did not include a suspension of Proposition 98 and that schools eventually will get the approximately $9.2 billion that is owed under the Prop. 98 guarantee.

"Nevertheless, the reductions that our schools must absorb now will heighten the challenge educators face in trying to increase student achievement and close the achievement gap, and I fear that the last decade of progress in statewide student test scores will be interrupted. I continue to have faith in the hard work of our teachers, administrators, school staff, parents, and students, and I sincerely hope that this fear is proven unfounded.

"I am pleased that the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) will remain as a condition of graduation for most students, but it is unfortunate that the agreement excludes the CAHSEE requirement for students with disabilities. Many thousands of students with disabilities have passed the Exit Exam, and many more will continue to take and pass this test. The Exit Exam requirement has pushed our system to help ensure that all students have the critical basic skills in English-language arts and math that are needed for productive work or college after high school. Eliminating this requirement for students with disabilities who are on a diploma track does nothing to help prepare these students for success after high school."