Protesters are encouraged to wear black for this county’s Day of Statewide Action in Support of Public Education.
Between 300 and 500 are expected to march about two miles in a mock funeral procession to symbolize public school jobs lost and classes slashed, said Rose Roach, a union representative for California School Employees Association.
Groups in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Fernando Valley will march from schools to government offices. Dozens of universities across the state have planned their own demonstrations.
Tracy Unified School District before next year plans to lay off 150 teachers, counselors, librarians and other employees to help save $16 million before 2013. Declining revenue from the state has most school districts in California scrambling to slash employees and classes because of major budget deficits.
The march in Stockton will begin outside Stockton Adult School around 5 p.m. and continue to San Joaquin Delta College for a candlelight vigil around 6:30 p.m.
Tracy Unified’s board of trustees at its meeting last week voted unanimously to support the rally.
Neither trustees nor district officials will attend since they’ll be at a special budget meeting at 7 p.m. in West High School, 1775 W. Lowell Ave.
Trustee Walter Gouveia said he encouraged Stockton residents to gather to send a message to the state that education should be a priority.
Gouveia said California should be investing in the students, not taking away.
“We’re saying to the state we’ve had it with the cuts in education,” Gouveia said. “These cuts basically are going to create an educational dysfunction … We just cannot afford it as a society.”
At Delta College during the candlelight vigil, Sally Zavala, President of Tracy Unified School District Advisory Committee, is scheduled to speak.
Roach said she hopes the march will be a “wake up call to Sacramento to figure out a stable funding source and prioritize our kids again.”
Contact Tracy Press reporter Cassie Tomlin at 830-4225 or ctomlin@tracypress.com. At a glance
WHAT: Protest march against school budget cuts
WHEN: March 4, 4:30 p.m.; march starts at 5 p.m.
WHERE: Stockton Adult School, 1525 Pacific Ave., Stockton
INFO: 472-6102
Yes, your opinion is uninformed. One look at the salary schedule for educators in Tracy (which can be accessed either online or by request) will tell you that an average teacher in the district, say one who has worked for 7 or 8 years here, earns around $53,000 before taxes, retirement, medicare, etc. That is not including the raised medical benefit costs from the District, which can take anywhere from $150-$800 more a month from that paycheck for a single teacher (not even including extending the benefits and therefore costs to dependents). An average teacher is the District is just like any other hard worker in private industry, lucky to just make all the bills per month.
So yes, go ahead and look at the numbers. Then look at how many 20 year veterans versus 0-10 year hires are really in the District, look at the medical plans offered and costs, and then say that teachers are greedy for asking to keep their jobs and only accept a pay cut if the savings allows then to have a chance to teach (and hopefully make the rent).
And again, the numbers were based on the total budget allocation per group divided by the number of individuals in said group, so a 20 year teacher is earning significantly more than a new hire. But on average, teachers do pretty good. (I don't know what their union dues are nor other employee contributions to medical/dental, etc.)
And of course, I'm not a financial analyst... so I recommend that people look at the numbers themselves.
I'm just not a fan of shortening the school year or laying of employees. There has to be a better solution... including an increase of taxes to make up for the lost tax base over the past 3 years.
I do think that the across the board cut for all TUSD employees and renegotiate the benefits sounds like a great idea.
Then renegotiate the Health and Welfare benefits (currently about $12MM a year)
Then there's the unbalance within the staffing. 742 Non Management (teachers et al)versus 543 staff and Management. Wow... that's a lot of staff. Seems a bit top heavy.
But of course the the pay is really great for teachers: about $85M a year per teacher. The average staff employee makes about $58M per year while management about $63M. Everyone talks about the poor teachers but, really? Eighty Five Thousand Dollars a year is well above the SJ county average of $61,017.
We all know that the teachers union is never going to suggest a pay cut... they'd rather see other employees lose their jobs first. Why? Because staff & management don't pay union dues.
/just my uninformed opinion