PD Editorial: School pleas

Walking out of class is hardly a way to improve schools or raise test scores. But it’s hard to blame students who took to the streets this week to plead for the jobs of their teachers and to protest the deplorable state of California’s education system.

The state, one can argue, walked out on them first.

This was underscored on Monday when school districts across the state issued nearly 22,000 pink slips to teachers and other employees. Monday was the legal deadline for districts to send preliminary layoff notices. The exact number of layoffs will depend on what comes of the state budget. Final notices will go out in May.

Last year, 60 percent of the 26,000 teachers who received pink slips during this period ended up losing their jobs.

In Sonoma County, 185 teachers were told that they may not have their jobs next year because of state funding cuts. In some areas, students won’t have their old schools either.

In Cotati-Rohnert Park, school board members already have approved the closure of one of two middle schools. They also expect to cut 29 middle and high school teaching positions, while holding out the possibility of hiring back nine teachers at the elementary school level. The Piner-Olivet school district also has made the decision to close a school — Piner Elementary School — next fall.

Meanwhile, seven of Sonoma County’s 40 school districts are expected to remain in a special “qualified” financial status for failing to meet minimum requirements for reserves and cash flow. Those districts are Cloverdale, Forestville, Geyserville, Healdsburg, Piner-Olivet, Sebastopol and West Sonoma County.

Despite a projected $20 billion budget deficit this year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has promised not to cut any more from education this year. “We are funding education at exactly the same level as last year,” the governor’s spokesman said this week.

Meanwhile, Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, said this week, “We have cut education enough.”

The sad news is that even if they keep those promises not to take more away, the cuts this year will still be devastating.

On Monday, two Cloverdale students carried a sign that read, “As more pink slips are assigned, more students are left behind.”

It’s a harsh lesson.