7K Layoff Notices Sent To Los Angeles Teachers

In the end, not every notice will lead to a job loss, but given the circumstances, the school district felt obligated to give fair warning.

The news rippled across the campus Friday morning, and students were falling apart. They texted their parents and sought out one another to see if it could all be true.

"I saw kids crying in the quad," said Portia Amofa, student body president at Hamilton High School in West Los Angeles.

The students were finding out that some of their favorite teachers were among roughly 7,000 in L.A. Unified who had gotten layoff notices. In addition, the directors of two enormously popular and successful Hamilton programs, the humanities magnet and the music magnet, had been told by L.A. Unified that their positions were being eliminated.

It is a cruel reality, and OS does sympathize mightily with the students.

The parents, teacher's union, legislature in Sacramento, the last six governors or so, the Federal government (which has swamped the system with unfunded mandates, and refused refused refused to enforce the border with Mexico for the past several decades--this is during administrations of both parties, ya'll--not just the Dems) need all to be sat in the corner of the classroom with the old 'Dunce' hat perched on their heads.

It isn't like this sad day was not forseen, years ago. It is a mathematical inevitability that this day would come. And everyone just pretended it would never come in their term of office/lifetime.

OS hopes the kids remember this day well, and resolve amongst themselves to never, ever let governments get so out of control as to rob their children of their futures.

This sort of thing is the imposition of a cruel tax upon those completely incapable of paying it.

Paying For 2010 Schools With 2003 Revenues

Peter, meet Paul.

This is just one example in one of Tennessee's ninety-three counties, and this one probably is faring better than most.

The county promised the schools some 19 million through the fiscal year, ending June 30. Some 12 million has been paid. But revenues are down to 2003 levels, and the county finishes collecting property tax revenues by the middle of March. They can't fork over money they don't have. They can't print it or borrow it like the federal government can.

That little cliff-diving red line on the sidebar chart represents sales tax revenue for 09-10.

In economist's parlance: 'Ruh-roh!'

In the meantime, more families are pulling out into home-schooling, and a private church-based academy is opening its doors. The bump of cash from all that 'stimulus' money will run out soon. The day of reckoning is at hand.

Ruh-roh...